"Come on everypony! Smile!" Pinkie Pie sang as she moved down the main street in Ponyville. Happiness could be seen on all of the nearby ponies as young and old, mare and stallion, ponies followed Pinkie Pie, creating a processional of ponies.
Hiding in the shadows between two houses, Glitter Spectrum watched the parade of bodies. She had to admit that the song was catchy, even catching herself bobbing her head and tapping her hooves to the beat. A slight smile crept over her lips as she watched the brightly coloured ponies march down the main street of town.
"Come on and Smile!" Pinkie Pie sang, finishing the song. Soon after the ponies began to return to their normal activities for the day. It was easy for Glitter to slip into the stream of ponies and find her way down the road of the unfamiliar town. She had come from Vanhoover all the way to Ponyville to seek out Twilight Sparkle.
Finding the Oak Library wasn't very hard once Glitter started looking in earnest. Gathering up her courage, she lifted a hoof and knocked three times before sitting on her haunches and waiting. Glitter was surprised with the door was opened by a dragon, not a pony.
"Hi there! I'm Spike!" the dragon said with enthusiasm, "Are you looking for Twilight?"
"Actually…" Glitter bit her lower lip for a moment and nodded. "Is she here?"
"Yeah! Come on in!" Spike exclaimed, opening the door wide. "Twilight! Somepony is here to see you!" he called out as he moved from the door.
Glitter could hear a groan as she entered the room. "SPIKE! How many times have I told you that I'm busy?!" the purple pony called out, looking up from a book.
Glitter pressed her ears against her lowering head, slowly taking a few steps back. "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting… I'll just go." Blue and pink hair fell around Glitter's face, hiding it from easy view.
"It's ok! I've already lost my place! Come on in!" Twilight turned from the book toward the other pony. "I don't think I've met you! I thought I knew all the ponies in Ponyville!"
Glitter slowly looked up at Twilight Sparkle, the pony she had traveled all this way to find. Her teal eyes locked onto Twilight as she blushed softly. "I'm... I'm not from Ponyville," she stammered, "I'm from Vanhoover."
Standing there, facing each other, Glitter could tell why people often thought her to be Twilight at first glance. Their coat colour was the same purple colour and they both had cutie marks that involved 6-pointed stars. However, where Twilight Sparkle was a unicorn-pony, Glitter was a pegasus-pony. Their mane and tail styles and colours were different too.
"Oh!" Twilight exclaimed, her eyes widening for a bit before a soft blush flew to her cheeks. "I'm sorry for assuming! Welcome to Ponyville! What brings you here?"
"Well…" Glitter lowered her ears to her head again, eyes shifting to the right and lidding half way. "I came here to find you." She said, after a long pause.
"Why me?" Twilight asked, canting her head to the side, brow furrowing with confusion. While she had been on plenty of adventures over the past year, they usually came directly from Princess Celestia or one of her friends. She'd never had a pony seek her out from another town for an adventure.
Glitter Spectrum sat slowly, her front hoof teasing at the wooden floor. "We heard about you in Vanhoover. Many people thought from your description that we might be long lost sisters, or cousins, or something. It was a silly idea! I'm sorry!" Glitter stood suddenly and began to back toward the door once more. "I'm sorry for interrupting your reading…" Glitter's voice cracked a bit, revealing just how nervous she was about the meeting.
"Wait!" Twilight called out. But Glitter Spectrum was already running headlong down the main road, away from the Oak Tree Library and toward the edge of town.
Author's Note
This story takes place before the end of Season Three. At this point, Twilight is still just a unicorn. I do not own any rights to MLP:FIM or Hasbro.
Glitter Spectrum ran blindly down the darkening streets of Ponyville, retracing her steps from a mere hour previous back toward the train station, and – eventually – Vanhoover, to the safety of her home. Tears filled her eyes, streaming back as she ran to get caught in her mane as its tendrils wildly swayed to and fro.
Skidding to a halt as she reached the station, Glitter looked left and right to find a dark, shadowed corner to sit in and wait for the next train, not due for many hours to come. Cowering low to the ground, ears pulled back against her head, Glitter cried.
“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” she repeated over and over to herself, shaking her head as she went over the whole situation at the Oak Library. “Why did I ever come. Stupid fur, stupid cutie mark!”
• • •
Twilight Sparkle looked at Spike with concern. “Who was that?” she asked, pacing in a circle around the inside of the library.
Spike sat on the staircase leading to Twilight's sleeping area. “I don't know, Twilight. She never gave me her name. She was pretty, though! She looked a lot like you, too, even down to the cutie mark.”
Twilight stopped her pacing and turned to Spike, her head canted to the side slightly. “Did she say anything about why she was here?”
Spike shook his head and lowered his muzzle toward the wooden floor. “No,” his voice shook with shame, as if he should know the answer to his best friend's answers, “she just said that she was looking for you.”
Twilight brightened a bit. “Well then, if she came all the way to Ponyville from Vanhoover to find me, we should go find her. Do me a favor and go and get Fluttershy, it seems that our new friend is rather shy, herself.”
Dismissing Spike to do his task, Twilight found her head lamp and headed toward Sugarcube Corner to get Pinkie. Everyone liked Pinkie Pie! Why not the newcomer?
• • •
Spike knocked on Fluttershy's door, hoping that she wasn't asleep or out tending to her animal friends. “Fluttershy? Are ya' home?” he called, standing on his tiptoes to try and see through the small window at the top of the door. Spike pressed his clawed hands to the door and craned his neck as far as it would go.
The door opened suddenly, even for Fluttershy, sending Spike tumbling into the cottage “Oh! Hello, Spike. How are you tonight?” Fluttershy's soft voice eased away the slight ringing in the baby dragon's ears as he tried to regain his composure.
“Twilight sent me! There's a new pony in town who's a bit shy and Twilight thought that maybe you could help bring her out of her shell a bit.” Spike replied as he got back to his feet.
Fluttershy's ears immediately folded down and back and she backed into the cottage slowly. “Oh, I don't know, Spike. I mean I'm not very good with meeting new people! I'm just too shy!”
Spike furrowed his brow, his eyes seemingly getting bigger in the process. “But Twilight needs you, Fluttershy!”
Torn, Fluttershy looked to Angel, her pet rabbit, to see what he had to say about the whole thing. Unfortunately for her, Angel was sound asleep, curled around a large carrot. Fluttershy winced as her one adviser was not available. She pawed at the flooring of the cottage, biting her lower lip as she tried to think. Finally she nodded. “Alright, Spike. If Twilight needs me, I'll try to be brave.”
“Al-l-l-right!” Spike called out, climbing onto Fluttershy's back and the two of them trotted off toward the town square where they would meetup with Twilight Sparkle.
• • •
Twilight winced as Pinkie Pie quick-fired statements and questions; way too quickly for her to answer. They had walked the short distance to the square, Pinkie babbling the whole way about how awesome it would be to throw a party for the newcomer.
“PINKIE!” Twilight raised her voice and stared Pinkie Pie in the eyes.
“What Twilight?” Pinkie asked, her head canted to the side a bit, cotton candy hair bouncing slightly.
“The new pony is very shy and didn't want to talk. Don't overwhelm her. Treat her like Fluttershy.” Twilight dropped into a teaching voice, hoping to keep Pinkie's short attention span.
“Oh! Well why didn't you say so?!” Pinkie said, her voice dropping to a whisper. “And then, after she knows that we're really cool ponies and that we're her new best friends, we can throw a PARTY!” Pinkie's voice slowly got louder until she shouted the last word, jumping up and spreading her limbs, confetti coming from seemingly nowhere, as was normal around Pinkie Pie.
“A Party?! Where? When?”
Spike's voice startled Twilight Sparkle, who spun around on her hooves, sighing as she saw her pale yellow friend and her pet dragon coming up the street.
“No parties, Spike, Not before we find out why she's here.”
“Aw Man!” Spike deflated, his eyes lowering to the ground next to Fluttershy's hooves. Fluttershy, however, was rather happy. “That's good, it's getting late and a party might keep the neighbor's up. Who knows what they might have to do in the morning!”
Twilight shook her head and switched on her headlamp, her horn starting to glow as she concentrated on finding the girl who had come to visit earlier.
Author's Note
Sorry for the bounce around...