The Jester
Rarity was right, Twilight could not miss the Golden Oak Library. It was, in fact, an oak tree. "So, they have their library in an actual tree? How can it still be alive?" Twilight asked as she looked at the tree.
Why don't you read a book on golden oaks, you know, if you want to take a break from the whole Nightmare Moon paranoia? Spike thought. I know you're still worried about it. For your own sake, let it go. Also, if I remember right, didn't some of the ancient druids from...like a really long time ago know a few things about how to make trees stay alive and grow under a variety of conditions...and didn't the grand Druid from early in Celestia's reign have reports about her stating she had turned a tree into her home, of course, the place where she reportedly lived was allegedly cleared out to build Blueblood's father's manor about thirty years ago.
Twilight gave a sigh of defeat knowing that she cannot hide anything from Spike, as she opened the door, the room was black due to a lack of light. Twilight tries to find something to give light to the room. She found a switch but after three tries she gave up. "Great." Well, I guess I'll have to feel for the blinds in the windows." Twilight stated as she started to feel along the wall.
Suddenly she and Spike heard the door shut.
GHOST! This place is haunted!
"Spike relax. It's likely that the door has an enchantment on it that shuts it after so long being open."
You don't know that. It could be a poltergeist.
"Spike, you have been reading too many of Dad's reprints," Twilight said. "There are no such things as poltergeists. Besides, a haunted library, that's just stupid."
"Yeah, the Golden Oak Library is not haunted. Although there was a sighting of a ghost in Dr. Time Turner Who' place last year, granted it turned out to be Brighteyes trying out her Nightmare Night costume," came a surprisingly cheerful voice from within the library.
Twilight turned as she cast a Daylight spell and sees a young woman right next to her. "Dah!" Twilight screamed.
"DAH!" The other woman screamed louder than Twilight.
"DAH!" Twilight screamed even louder than before.
"DAH!" the woman screamed even louder causing Twilight to lose her balance and fall to the floor. "So did I win the screaming contest. I usually win those. I can be really loud!" the woman said as she gave a huge smile which for some reason gave the sound like a squee.
"Wh..who are you?" Twilight asked as she looked at the woman. She looked to around Twilight's age, maybe a few months younger. She had pink cotton candy-like hair that was all but bursting out of the twin-tailed jester's cap. The cap itself was emblazoned with three balloons, two blue one yellow. The woman also wore a dark pink overcoat with puffy pink sleeves, and a pair of white frilly gloves, a simple leotard under her jacket, leaving her legs bare except for the curly-toed shoes she wore.
"I am sorry, I am Pinkamena Diane Pie, but everyone knows me as Pinkie Pie, Pinkie for short." Pinkie Pie answered as she reached out a hand to help Twilight up.
"Ho...how did you get in here?" Twilight asked as she accepted the hand reluctantly.
"The Golden Oak Library is the property of Magiville, all residences of Magiville can enter and exit it whenever. Although they cannot leave with a book without signing it out, they have ten days to return it, before they are hit with a fine. But it would be nice to have an actual librarian when Cheerilee goes back to teaching when the school season starts."
"Wh..what are doing in here?" Twilight asked, she knows she's nearing the rabbit hole, but has no idea how close she is.
"Hum... give me a moment. I forgot." Pinkie answered as she takes a pose akin to 'The Thinker' and sticks her tongue out as she tried to concentrate.
"Yo.. you don't remember..." Too late Twilight just realized she was chasing a white rabbit.
Pinkie Pie snapped her fingers as she recalled what she had forgotten. "Now, I remember, I was waiting for you. I was supposed to greet you at one hour before Meridium on the road from Chantalot, but when Noon came and you didn't show up I decided to greet you here."
"How did you know I was coming?"
"Itchy toe." Pinkie answered matter-a-factually with a deadpan face and tone as if this was normal.
"What?" Twilight asked baffled by the thought of what Pinkie Pie just said and all its implications.
"Yeah, when a new person comes to town my one of toes gets itchy. Since it was one of my big toes I knew you were coming from Chantalot and since it was my left big toe I knew Princess Celestia sent you, Twilight Sparkle, Apprentice of Princess Celestia, in her role as the Archmage." Pinkie said as she pulled from nowhere a 'recording' of her left big two starting to itch time stamped with a 'recording' of Twilight leaving the throne room with an identical timestamp. "See."
"How do you know my name?" Twilight asked as Pinkie Pie returned the screen to the nothingness she conjured it from.
"My friends, namely Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy just say, 'It's Pinkie Pie, don't question it.'. Also, the writer, Foxhelm, thought it would be funny if I broke the fourth wall and function like a deus ex machina. Also, you can set these to have closed captions, it's a text-based way to convey information that is often conveyed audibly to the hearing-impaired." Answered with and gave a smile.
To save the better part of her mind, Twilight found an unused corner in it, marked it 'Pinkie Pie', put everything she just found out in it and strove to forget it existed. "Why are you here?"
"To get to know you and become your friend. You see I am friends with everyone in Magiville and from my experience and in Foxhelm's book, 'How to Become Friends?' with commentary by dracone, (coming soon to ), there are two foolproof ways to become friends. We cannot do one because it's not Hard Apple Cider Season and there are no guards to break the fight up, so, that leaves my favorite way..." she paused for few seconds, which Twilight found surprisingly unnerving, before throwing her arms out so wide as if she was trying to embrace all of existence and shouted "A PARTY!"
If there were any crickets within ear-shot and with excellent timing, that was a good time to start chirping.
"Um Foxhelm, that joke is really old, both with the crickets chirping and not chirping." Pinkie Pie said with a deadpan tone to the author/narrator. However, her attention then turned to a small purple lizard-like creature that had scurried to Twilight's shoulder and started hissing at her. "Oh, oh, is that Spike, your ten-year-old Northern Mountain Dragon familiar. He's c…" Pinkie tried to pet the dragon but pulled back before her glove was burnt by his green flames. "Kinda really mad. I know just the thing to calm him down." Pinkie Pie said as she dug into her pockets and after a few seconds pulled out… "A Blazing Beating Sapphire-Ruby Heart." Pinkie said as she held out a heart shape gem that was half sapphire and half ruby. "Here you go, big guy."
"Ho...ho...how…" Twilight stammered as she witnessed Pinkie Pie offered one of the rarest type of gems, something that should be impossible because of the way sapphires and rubies form are for all intents and purposes mutually exclusive because they are both made from the same base compounds, but what gives rubies their red color are considered 'impurities' for sapphires.
"I grew up on a rock farm, my family mined like three dozen of these last year. They gave me three. This one I set aside to appease a dragon. Come on, you know you want it." Pinkie Pie coed to Spike. Spike sniffed the peace offering and took it with his mouth, still glaring wrath at the pink-haired jester. As soon as he tasted the gem, his temperament changed drastically as he sucked on the gem-like it was a pacifier.
Twilight was utterly bewildered as she watched someone just give to Spike one of the rarest gems in the world for him to… eat... Yes, Spike eats gems… but… To save her sanity Twilight elected to change topics to the party or rather the lack thereof. "What party are you talking about, there is no one else here?"
"Oh no... um... SURPRISE!" Pinkie screamed at the top of her lungs and soon the lights proper came on and a lot of people jumped out into the open, among them Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
"SURPRISE!" everyone shouted as Twilight saw them almost popped out of the woodwork.
"DAH!" Twilight screamed as she fell to the floor.
After a second Rarity came in huffing and puffing. "Sorry I am... I missed the 'Surprise' didn't I?" Rarity asked as she looked at everyone.
"Rares, why do yah 'ave ta always be late?" Applejack asks as she gave a sigh of frustration at Rarity's frequent tardiness.
"Yeah, it would be cool that you'd be on time for once." Rainbow Dash commented pointing out that these parties are better and cooler with everyone there. Rarity thought this a bit like the pot calling the kettle black since Rainbow was known for her frequently being late and tardy in a variety of things around town.
"Um, Pinkie... you forgot the welcome wagon.." Fluttershy pointed out the lack of the actual Welcome Wagon.
"Shoot." Pinkie then dug into her pockets and pulled out... a rubber chicken.
"Why do you have a rubber chicken in your pocket?" Twilight asked in confusion.
"Because a live chicken would squirm and fight and to have one of those in your pocket is animal cruelty." Pinkie answered in a deadpan tone with a look on her face that said 'how did you not see that answer, it's right there, three feet in front of you'. "On a different note a good trickster mage has to be prepared for anything, so I have to keep a lot in my pockets. Oh, oh, found something even better than my welcome wagon!" Pinkie Pie said as she found something and gave a small 'evil' grin.
"Oh merciful Zacherle, no..." Applejack said first.
"Not that..." Rainbow Dash said seconded.
"Anything but..." Rarity continued overly dramatic.
Fluttershy just froze in terror, and if you looked really closely you could see a bit of her hair turn a leaf green for a moment.
After looking at the five people she met today and then to all the town people in the library. "Should I be afraid to ask?" Twilight asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"Don't worry Twilight it's perfectly legal. BEHOLD AND LO!" Pinkie Pie pulled out of the pocket something that logically should not have been in her pocket in the first place. It made contact with the floor with a loud thud with it's two pink flower decorated wheels. The barrel was blue and shaped like a typical cartoon cannon. "MY PARTY CANNON!"
"How… how did..." Twilight stammered as her mind was trying to save itself before the logical part of it leads the mind down a path it could never recover from.
"I have no idea." Pinkie Pie said cheerfully as she pulled out a match and as she went to light said match, "But I am not complaining!" she sang.
Before Pinkie Pie can light the fuse, "WAIT!" Applejack shouted. "Sugarcube, remember when ya used that in the barn during Big Mac's last birthday party?"
"Yes." Pinkie answered.
"And what did ya and I agree ta after that? Applejack asked trying to get Pinkie Pie to connect the dots.
"That the… oh…" Pinkie Pie realized and then blow out the match and pocketed the match and cannon. "outdoor party item. Sorry, everybody. Let's get back to the party."
"STOP! I don't want a party." Twilight said before anything else happened.
Everyone froze as Pinkie Pie looked at Twilight in utter confusion. "Um... what?" Pinkie Pie asked, this time it was her mind that was on the line.
"I...DO...NOT...WANT...A...PARTY!" Shouted slowly, emphasizing each word.
"This is not going to end well. Well, I am going get a slice of cake." Rainbow Dash said as she headed to the library's kitchen, The Golden Oak library was set up for the librarian to live in the tree.
"Oh no, you don't Rainbow Dash. We stand by our girl." Rarity said as she enchanted Rainbow Dash's boots and levitated her back.
"Ah man."
"Why is not wanting a party a bad thing!?" Twilight asked annoyed with the whole thing.
"I...I...always thro...throw parties for ne...new people... it's how they get to...to know everyone be...because they don't know anybody and parties help ma...make p-people hap..hap.." Pinkie Pie was holding back tears.
Realizing what she just did. "Oh no, please don't."
"BUT you don't want a party!" Pinkie cries, and she literally cried waterfalls.
"I'll have the party," Twilight said trying to prevent things getting worse.
"Co...come again?" Pinkie Pie said as she stopped the waterfalls but was still very close to crying again.
"I'll have the party." Twilight gave in.
Pinkie Pie's smile was impossibly large. "Let's…"
"After the Summer Sun Celebration," Twilight said.
"After the Summer Sun Celebration. Humm, that's a tough act to follow. But it wouldn't be Tuesday without having two parties back to back, the second being bigger than the first. Okay, everyone, we got to reschedule." Pinkie said and opened the door. Everyone then left in a huff.
The last to leave, save the five people Twilight meet was Big Mac."Miss Sparkle, good day, evening and night." the giant said as he ducked to exit the library.
"Wow, a name with five words. You must have made an impression on the big guy." Rainbow commented. "He's usually not that vocal with people he just met. So, about the cake?"
"We have to respect Twilight's space. Let's go." Rarity said as she headed out. "Good night, darling."
"See you tomorrow morning, Twilight," Fluttershy said as she left.
"Check ya later." Rainbow Dash then flew out.
"G'nite." Applejack said as she left. "Come on, Sugarcube." She said to Pinkie Pie.
"Be ready to have your socks knocked off for your party." Pinkie Pie said as she shut the door behind her. Twilight noted how that made even less sense than it would have if someone else had said it.
"Spike take a…" Twilight started but stopped as she saw Spike still sucking on the gem Pinkie Pie gave him. "I'll write it myself, but I'll need you to send it."
Fine
Twilight then walked into what would be her room.
'Dear Princess Celestia.
The preparations are all in order.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
P.S.
Everyone in this town is crazy! Case and point Pinkie Pie, she thinks tomorrow is Tuesday, but today is Sunday.
P.P.S.
I still believe Nightmare Moon is coming' Twilight wrote and she had Spike send it. Twilight then went over to the books, maybe there was a book about Nightmare Moon and how she was beaten, the short story in the book that caused her to started this three-month research had little information. Twilight knew to never judge a library by its appearance, the older more run down ones are known to have books with the most accurate information, or at least closer to the original source material.
A man that appeared in his late forties sat in the darkness as the sun set, he was dressed as if he was one with the shadows. He sat as if in meditation. His breathed slowly until he finally entered a trance. He heard a regal female voice in his mind "Is everything in order, Tantabus?" the voice asked.
"Celestia will be traveling on her flagship over the Starplains to oversee the summer solstice celebration in a backwater... hamlet is too nice of a word... called 'Magiville'. I have found a captain for our future aerial elite team, Shadowbolts being the team's working title. Also, Grogar, father of Arimaspi, Catrina the cat-witch and Hydia the last succubus have some forces and I am told they are ready for an all-out war." The man, Tantabus replied to the voice.
"Those fools! We need only one death, HER!" The voice said in reply, irate about the idiocy of her 'allies'.
"Don't worry, I have embedded several of the Order into each of their forces, as for the Shadowbolt it's just her currently. As for Hydia, Catrina and Grogar, I am concern about them backstabbing you. I have promised them pay for their service. However I have only given my word, I never claimed to actually speak for you and you and I know, your word trumps mine." Tantabus informed.
"They shall not be paid! They and their brood tried to steal from Us during Our exile..." the voice paused, she knows she must calm down, Tantabus has served her well, he was not the one to be angry at.
"It shall be done as you command. However, your grace, I still feel that the ascended Skyborn Mi Amore Cadenza should also be..."
"She is of little, if any concern, to Us. Without Celestia to shield her she shall submit or die once We claim Our throne. Your concern for Us regarding her is not needed, Our faithful servant."
"My concerns are not just about what she can do to you as a possible threat and symbol of resistance. She can be viewed as another symbol, a means to humiliate both the memory Celestia and Mystica. I am told by my agents, Fi-doh, Spaht and Bray that at least Catrina and Grogar will…"
"Are you suggesting that We shield this Pretender!"
"Yes and no. I am thinking more along the line of letting the non-Mysticans be used as cannon fodder when we charge Chantalot and/or use them as the scapegoats so as to make you look like one trying to restore order, given that you are Celestia's sister."
"Subtly encourage both love and fear of Us among Our subjects." the voice then gave a subdued laugh of triumphant. "We commend you for your dedication to Our standings. You have done well thus far. After tonight We shall reward you and your line handsomely."
"I am nothing but your servant, your highness, an agent of your will. Accomplishing your desires is all the reward I want." the man replies.
"Your humility serves you and Us well. We look forward to finally meeting you face to face, Our most dutiful servant. DO NOT FAIL US!" the voice finished and was gone.
The man's mediation ended as he opened his eyes. "Shadows, the time has come. AVE REGINA!"
"AVE REGINA!" a collection of twelve other Nightborn men and women chanted in response.