Twilight breathed in the fresh spring air as they walked along, it was such a relief from the castle library; even librarians can get tired of books every so often. The air was room temperature and not too dry or humid, there was a sturdy breeze, and the sky was mostly cloudy while still allowing sunlight to come through. In other words, it was the perfect day to do absolutely whatever you wanted to do.

So where was everypony?

Twilight looked around and saw that the only ponies around were a few shopkeepers at their booths, but even they looked confused as she was concerning the matter. She saw several fillies running and laughing past her; she stopped one, much to his dismay. "Rumble, where did everyone go?"

The grey pegasus shrugged, "I don't know, they're probably all going to see the weird box thingy."

Twilight tried to not cringe at the juvenile word choice. "What kind of box... thingy?" she asked.

"I don't know, but I hear it's really cool," he said excitedly. He then turned and galloped off, "wait up guys!"

"Maybe we should check this thing out too," said Spike, he seemed excited as well.

Twilight thought for a second, "No, we should go see this new pony. I feel that he may have something to do with this. Besides, it's probably too crowded there to see anything." Spike groaned but followed Twilight begrudgingly. When they got to town hall, it was as deserted as the rest of the town, with the exception of a couple of old-timers playing chess on the table nearby. Twilight opened the doors and was relieved to see at least a number of ponies that would take more than a second to count. She approached the counter. "Excuse us Mayor, but we are looking for somepony."

Mayor Mare was focusing on a crossword puzzle, "Hold on, I'm focusing," she said. "What's a thirteen-letter word for rude?"

"Inconsiderate?" said Spike impatiently.

She caught on to his tone, "Well I don't see what the big rush is, it's not like you can–" she looked up and saw who was in front of her, "Oh! Your Highness! I'm terribly sorry, please forgive me!" She then proceeded to blubber out an accompanying string of apologies as her face increasingly reddened.

Twilight was sure the Mayor would start kissing her hooves if she didn't say anything. "That's fine Mayor, really. I've been caught up in a challenging crossword myself before."

Mayor Mare laughed nervously, "Oh, right," she cleared her throat, "Well, is there anything I can help you with?"

Twilight ignored Spike's comment of "finally". "Yes, we were hoping to meet the new resident moving in. Could you show us to him?"

Mayor Mare looked past Twilight's shoulder and pointed in that direction, "Didn't you see him? He's right there, finishing his papers."

Twilight looked behind her; indeed, there was the grey unicorn that matched the description of the one they were looking for. "Oh, right." It was Twilight's turn to redden at what should have been an easy find. She thanked Mayor Mare, who discovered that Spike's word did in fact fit the crossword puzzle. They walked over to the newcomer. "Hello there, I am–"

"–Princess Twilight Sparkle, coronation a little over one year ago, 2 LR." He mumbled on without looking up, "Current residence, Golden Oaks Library. Age–" He realized that he had gone past standard introduction procedure and gave a grimaced look that Spike recognized. He cleared his throat as he met Twilight's eyes. "Ah. Excuse me, my name is Dry Quill the Chronicler, though you can call me Quill for short." He made an awkward smile, "though I suppose I've already introduced yourself to me." He was rewarded with two slack-jawed faces.

Twilight recovered from the shock, "How did you..." she waved a hoof around as her mind completely went blank, an occurrence that didn't happen often.

"I'm so terribly sorry if I caused any discomfort, I just..." he made the same waving gesture, "did my homework on this place."

Spike tapped Twilight on the leg, "Don't worry Twilight, he surprised me too." Still, there was something nagging at the back of Spike's mind that he couldn't quite put his claw on.

He shuffled his papers and straightened up, "Allow us to start over, My name is Dry Quill. You?"

Twilight agreed with a nod, "Princess Twilight Sparkle, but Twilight is fine."

"A pleasure to meet you," he said, taking Twilight's front hoof and kissing it lightly as he bent down. Twilight blushed profusely and looked around. Fortunately, everyone here was either occupied or sleeping. Spike's mouth was agape again. "What is it?" Quill asked, "Is this not the formal way to greet royalty?

Twilight stammered, "I– I suppose," she giggled slightly.

He laughed, "Meeting your first gentlecolt taken you by surprise then? Well, there's never enough of those these days."

"That's not the only thing surprising," thought Spike. He waved to get Quill's attention, "Look, I'd hate to interrupt the courtship and everything, but would you happen to know of that big box thing that everypony is going to see?"

Quill widened his eyes and stepped back, "Everypony? Oh dear, I hope they aren't touching anything." He suddenly looked rushed as he gathered the paperwork. "Excuse me Twilight, we'll have to hold off on our formalities for now–" he ran by Mayor Mare as he dropped off his papers and ran out the door, "we will talk some other time!"

Twilight looked over to Spike, who shrugged. "This just keeps getting better," he said. They followed in the direction Quill went.

Twilight could hear an increasing ramble of voices as she approached the area where the box was. Though, she didn't expect to see what she saw when she turned the corner. It was Trixie's introduction all over again, with few differences. There was just about everypony here surrounding a cart, or rather a carriage, that had some sort of mostly wooden box on it. There were parts and gears sticking out here and there, with glass panels on a couple of sides. The most notable feature though was the sound it made, which was a strange deep humming noise that seemed to emanate from its core. Twilight looked around and could see that even though there was a dense crowd gathered at the contraption, the strange noise it made kept the onlookers from getting too close to it.

Rainbow Dash glided down to where they were. "Hey Twilight," she said, "do you know what that thing is over there?"

"Now don't bother her an' expect her to know everything." Dash and Twilight looked to the source of the noise. It was Applejack trotting over. "Hey there Twilight. Ah came over as soon as ah heard about some weird contraption over here," she looked and tried to see the mostly obscured object, "an' I figured I better be prepared to face whatever this one's gunna do." She had a skeptical look on her face, a result of their previous experiences from Trixie's cart and the Super Cider Squeezy incident.

Twilight was glad to see her friends not completely transfixed by the object of attention. "I'm sorry girls, but Applejack's right, I'm trying to figure out what this is myself."

"Do you think it's some sort of weapon or something like that? Because that would be awesome!" Rainbow Dash then put her hooves up and waved them in small circles as if she was getting ready to fight the thing herself.

"Ah doubt it, an' that wouldn't be too 'awesome' if you ask me." Applejack said as she shot a look at Rainbow Dash.

It was then that there was a pop at the top of the box; Quill had teleported onto it and a silence fell over the crowd when he did so. "Hello there," he said, "now I know you all are wondering what this contraption is, and I can understand your curiosity. I have heard many theories, some say it is a vehicle, some say it is a weapon, some have more... farcical theories. I can assure you it is none of these."

"Darn it," Rainbow Dash grumbled.

"Now if you all will step back, I need to get this thing running so I can organize." He then hopped off of it and pulled a lever on the side. The crowd backed up and Twilight saw that the contraption had been placed in the middle of the plot of land. The noise that the contraption was giving grew into a large roar, and the crowd backed up further. What Twilight saw next was quite amazing, the contraption was unfolding. Panels flipped, gears turned, and steam whistled. Quill watched it with disinterest, but the crowd was absolutely hypnotized by the whole ordeal. After about five minutes, the contraption suddenly sprung out, and there stood a two-story house-shop complex with a display window on the front and a small canopy over it. There was a sign above the door that read, "Dry Quill's rare artifacts and records". The next line read, "Brain Storm's Gizmos and Gadgets". "Alright everyone," Quill said, "Showtime's over, I will be open for business the day after tomorrow, so you can all go home now or to work." The crowd gave a collective groan and slowly dispersed until all who remained were Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Dry Quill. "Ah, hello there Twilight," he said as they walked over to him, "I see you've brought your friends to welcome me."

"Yes. Dry Quill, this is Applejack and Rainbow Dash," Twilight said as she gestured to them, eliciting a "howdy do" and "hey there" respectively.

He nodded to them, "Nice to meet you two. So, what do you think of my humble abode?"

Twilight looked at it, "It's amazing, I've never seen anything like it. How did you do it?" The sheer complexity of it was causing Twilight to almost shake with excitement, but she managed to control herself.

Quill gave a hearty laugh, "I'm glad you are impressed, though I must admit, I am not solely responsible for the creation of this little wonder. I had quite a bit of help from Brain Storm, who is coming with the other half of the house."

Twilight was dumbfounded, "Did you say other half?"

He smiled, he obviously enjoyed surprising people like this, "Well yes, we need both halves if we are to fit all four of us comfortably." Twilight wasn't so sure, the building was already the size of a regular house

It was Applejack's turn to question, "Ah am sorry, 'all four of us'?"

"Yes," he explained again, "there's me, Brain Storm– actually, they should be riding in tomorrow. I'll introduce them then, if you don't mind. Any other questions?"

Riding in? Twilight pushed that question aside, the next thing she wanted to know was how the house fit in there and unfolded like that. "So how does that house work?"

Quill scratched the back of his head, "It's going to be quite a lecture for it to make sense really."

Rainbow Dash interjected, "Well, if there's anything Twilight knows better than anypony, it's lectures, especially the eggheaded ones. Right Twilight?"

Twilight playfully rolled her eyes and smiled, "I wouldn't put it that way, but sure, I could stand to listen, though I doubt Dash here would last a second."

Quill cleared his throat, "Well, there's a central drive shaft with a modified steam engine, and it–"

The two eggheads spent the next seven hours talking about the inner workings of the M-CORE, or Mobile Central Occupational and Research Establishment. The said conversation gave Rainbow Dash a throbbing headache within a few seconds, causing her to leave shortly after, while Applejack had to leave for farm work duties. Spike left as well, saying he had to "remedy a situation", but Twilight didn't notice, or care; the conversation was too engrossing to leave. They talked of numbers and gears; of the uses of gems as conductors of magic and theories on the different possible ways to harvest the Aurora Borealis and so on. Eventually the conversation went to more personal matters, of their favorite books and authors; their habits to being more organized, until the conversation went to friends and family. Twilight told Quill about her parents, Shining Armor and her sister-in-law Candace, her friends, and of course, Spike the number-one assistant.

"You seem to be very fortunate in respect to your relationships," said Quill, "I too have very close friends, like the ones I mentioned. In fact, they are more like family to me than anything else."

Twilight started asking, "What about your actual fam-" but stopped when she saw Quill get a distant look in his eyes. Guilty, even. Twilight didn't know why, but it was obvious that that was not a subject he wanted to talk about yet.

Quill saw the concerned look Twilight had, and laughed, brightening his mood. "Now, don't you worry, my origins are not anything for you to concern yourself over." He looked at the sunset, "Well, will you look at the time, I suppose we should go home now. Thank you Twilight, this has been a most pleasant conversation." He took her hoof and kissed it lightly again, causing Twilight to blush and look around again. She then noticed that it was in fact getting late, and she was hungry, having missed dinner.

She thanked Quill and headed home, and though the air was quite cool, she found herself feeling quite warm for some reason.

Author's Note

Just in case you don't know what LR is, it stands for "Luna's Return", a bit of headcannon I borrowed. I believe that is how much time had transpired according to my fuzzy recollection of events of the past episodes. Correct me of I'm wrong.

How did you all like the acronym? That took me a while to come up with.