Not Another Good Guy

I watched the sunrise from my tree when the morning came around. The sun seemed to rise oddly quickly here, but I didn't exactly have any memories of past sunrises to compare it to. Instead of rising, the sun seemed to jump into position.

I dropped out of the tree and began to idly wander towards the town. I might as well see what the ponies are up to. I'd rather know about the approaching mob before they reach me this time.

The sun suddenly seemed to twitch and lurch higher into the sky. I stopped, puzzled by the sudden movement. Something is definitely going on here.

"Twilight? Twilight, wake up. Hello?"

Twilight slowly dragged her eyelids open to see Spike standing in front of her, shaking her awake.

"What happened?" she said, struggling to pull her thoughts together.

"I was about to ask you the same question. I came downstairs this morning and you were all just lying here like you had a big sleepover party."

Twilight looked around the room and saw all her friends still asleep around her. Then she saw Celestia and Luna, and she remembered everything.

"Spike! How long have I been asleep?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. Couldn't be more than overnight. The sun just rose."

Twilight let out a sigh of relief. "That's good, I suppose. If it hasn't been too long, then the human couldn't have gotten far. Help me wake up everypony and then we can get to planning."

"What is that supposed to mean?" he said, gently shaking Fluttershy's head. "About the human, that is."

"The human fought the princesses, brought them here, reflected my sleep spell, and we now have no idea where he is or what he is doing."

"What?!" Spike yelled, dropping Fluttershy's face into the floorboards.

"I know it sounds crazy, but it really happened," Twilight said as she gave Rainbow Dash a particularly forceful push. Despite their efforts, they couldn't get anypony to wake up.

"It's no use, Spike." Twilight said as Spike pulled open Pinkie Pie's eyelids. "The spell must not have worn off on them yet. We will have to wait for them to wake up on their own."

That's when Twilight spared a brief moment to look out the window and see the beautiful sunny morning.

The beautiful sunny morning.

The sun.

"Spike," Twilight began with a slightly quivering voice, "when did you say the sun rose?"

"Just a little while ago. Couldn't have been more than half an hour."

Twilight whirled around and ran over to Celestia. Sure enough, the solar princess was still unconscious with low levels of magic.

"That's impossible! There's no way that Celestia could have raised the sun! Come to think of it, how did the moon get lowered?"

Spike followed Twilight as she ran back over to the window to stare at the sun again. "If Celestia didn't raise the sun, then who did?"

"I don't know, Spike. Nopony even has the power to do that!"

Discord was not having a good time. Lowering the moon without letting it crash into Equestria was difficult enough, but raising the sun and keeping it on a continuous path through the sky? It was so dull and orderly! Boring!

However, it had to be done. He consoled himself by making the sun only move on in erratic jumps and letting it shine with a slight shade of green. Everypony would notice that something was different, but they would never be able to put their hooves on it. It was perfectly chaotic!

On second thought, blue was a better color. With a snap of his talons, it was so. Satisfied, he contented himself with floating over Canterlot Castle and watching the world below. He would never admit it, but there was a certain pleasure to watching everything go by peacefully. As nice as it was, he still preferred chaos.

Fortunately, he wouldn't need to wait very long. The human had arrived. Chaos would ensue, it was inevitable. He had known this day would come since he first became a statue all those years ago, and he had been preparing ever since he had regained his freedom.

Discord summoned some chocolate milk and silently toasted himself for his brilliance. The plan was absolutely infallible. All he had to do was some subtle manipulations for everything to turn out exactly how he wanted it to.

He swallowed the glass and threw the chocolate behind him, where it turned into a model of his head that fell into the streets of Canterlot far below.

Well, maybe not everything would be how he wanted it. The human was proving to be a problem. As much as Discord appreciated chaos, the human was a bit too much of a wild card. The human's unpredictability and irrationality could be the undoing of all of his efforts. All his schemes would be for naught if this plan was foiled.

Not like he could do anything about it right now. All he could do was watch and wait. And change the sun to a slight pink. Pink was better than blue.

I just can't figure out what it is, I thought as I wandered into town, but something is just... off about the sky. Not the jumping sun, but something else. I just can't put my finger on it. It's so frustrating!

I shook my head and tried to think about something else. No sense getting frustrated over something I couldn't do anything about. I watched the townsponies, but they seemed to have no negative reactions to me. A few even gave me a friendly wave as I passed.

Huh. I wandered as yet another pony gave me a wave. I guess that Twilight and her friends haven't told anyone else about that incident. Heck, maybe they haven't even woken up yet.

That put a slight spring in my step, but it was a still a step without proper direction. I had no idea what to do. Fortunately, inspiration struck me as I wandered further into town and noticed a familiar building: the hospital. According to Twilight, my escapade at the barn had put a pony in there. It would be wrong not to at least apologize.

"Twilight, this is ridiculous."

"Be quiet, Spike. I'm still calibrating the celestial detection fields."

Spike sighed as he watched Twilight continue to cast spells on the princesses. Somehow Twilight had convinced herself that she could find the answer this way, but he wasn't too sure about that.

"Twilight, we aren't going to get any useful information out of this."

"Uh huh."

"I'm just saying that if Celestia didn't raise the sun, then wouldn't it be pointless to try to trace the magic from her?"

"Uh huh."

"Are you even listening to me?"

"Uh huh."

"No you're not."

"Uh huh."

Spike groaned and facepalmed. It was going to be one of those days.

"Can I burn down the library?"

"Uh huh."

"Become an agent of evil?"

"Uh huh."

"Overthrow the Crystal Empire?"

"Uh huh."

Done with his fun, he quickly scrawled down a note for Twilight. He would be going outside and performing "field testing" at Sugarcube corner. Maybe the answer to all this would be in the bottom of a smoothie. It wouldn't hurt to try. Grabbing a few bits, he left Twilight to do her own thing.

I walked into the hospital, not sure of what to expect. I didn't expect to see a familiar face, given that I only knew a few of the ponies here.

"I certainly didn't expect to see you back here," the nurse said.

"Well, I was dead. Not exactly every day that someone comes back to life."

He cocked an eyebrow at me. "I'm guessing that you haven't heard of the Cutie Mark Crusader Necromancy incident."

"The what?"

"Thought so. With how often crazy stuff has happened in this town, it isn't really that surprising to see an alien resurrected. As nice as it is to see you doing well, I'm guessing that you didn't just come here for a friendly chat. What can I do for you?"

"I came here looking for a pony named Derpy." Hard to forget a name like that. "I thought it would be appropriate to apologize, considering that I am the one who put her here."

"You're in luck. She should be checking out of here any minute now. Feel free to wait for her," he said.

"Thanks. By the way, I never did get your name."

"Clockwork. Yours?"

I shrugged. "I really don't know. I can't remember anything. I've just gone by human."

Surprisingly, he didn't question my strange explanation. "All right then, see you around, human. Derpy will be here soon. You can't miss her." he said over his shoulder as he left through an "employee only" door.

Just then, a mare came a through a pair of side doors. Both of her wings were in casts, but that wasn't what got my attention. Her eyes were... well, for a lack of a better term, derpy. As soon as she saw me, both of her eyes righted themselves to stare at me.

"Hey," I said. She only blinked in response. Well, it's a start.

"I just came to talk to you about that incident at the barn. I just wanted to apologize for getting you sent to the hospital."

Her brow furrowed for moment in thought. Aww crap, I said something wrong. She's going to-

My mental processes were cut off by a powerful hug. "Apology accepted! It's nice to meet you!"

I could hardly believe it. "You just forgave me? Just like that?"

She smiled. "Yup!"

"You aren't angry at me?"

"Nope! You said you're sorry, and you really looked like you meant it. That's good enough for me!"

I stood there for a moment, baffled by the strange feelings running through me. It was such a foreign concept to me that someone could so easily forgive and forget. It left me extremely confused, and a little bit of something else. Something happy, but warmer and fuzzier. Whatever it was, I just couldn't quite-

Oh. Indeed, it was joy that had touched my heart. A few things had happened to me so far that made me happy, but nothing so far had made me feel this way. It was an unfamiliar and invasive feeling that wouldn't leave me alone. It wormed its way through my heart and through my body until it filled my being with its presence.

I liked it.

Derpy smiled at me. "Wanna go hang out? I just have to sign a few forms and then I'm out of here."

I shrugged. "Alright, I didn't have anything planned for today anyway."

"Awesome!"

Ten minutes later, we were waiting in line at a bakery known as Sugarcube Corner. I remembered the place from when I first met the terrifying pink monster, and only agreed to come because I did not see her anywhere.

"Hey, what are you looking at?" Derpy asked.

"...nothing," I replied after reassuring myself that there were no particularly peculiar pink ponies nearby.

"Dude, you look way too worried. What's on your mind?"

I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck, stalling as we moved forward in line and I tried to think of a good answer. I just almost killed your rulers and now the protectors of your world are in a coma. Aside from that, no worries!

"I suppose that the problem is in the question," I finally said.

"Whoa. That's too deep for me."

I suddenly had the oddest urge to slap my hand to my forehead, but I managed to resist. "I mean that I keep thinking about how kind everyon- er, everypony- has been to me, especially you. It really confuses me."

"What's so confusing about that?"

"I don't know. It seems strange to me that you would so quickly give forgiveness to me after my actions put you in the hospital."

She shrugged as we moved forward again. "I suppose that most ponies wouldn't be so eager to let it go so quickly. I, however, believe strongly in second chances. If nopony would have given me a second chance years ago, I wouldn't be the mare I am today."

Just then, we reached the counter and were greeted by a polite blue mare. "Hello Derpy, what can I get for you today? The usual?"

"Yeah, but double it." She grinned and elbowed me in the side. "I got a friend with me today."

A... friend? The word felt unfamiliar and out of place to me. Despite the worry the word caused me, it also brought hope. Hope of something new, hope of something beautiful. It brought a grin to my face, which quickly split into a smile.

I had a friend. It drew up that feeling of joy that I had felt earlier and it reinforced that emotion as it swelled up inside me. I felt then that I truly knew joy.

Speaking of joy, the bakery pony was just returning with a giant box full of something that smelled amazing. My stomach growled loudly, and I realized just how hungry I was.

"Thanks, Mrs. Cake!" said Derpy as she tossed the box onto her back and gave the bakery pony a few coins.

We sat down at a table outside and opened up the box. Inside, I was greeted by the glorious sight of muffins. I didn't have any distinct memory of them, but they must have been in the "common knowledge" the voice gave me. It didn't matter either way, because they were absolutely delicious.

"In all my time here," I said between bites, "I have never had a better muffin."

"I thought you just came to Equestria two days ago?"

"My point exactly," I said, reaching for another muffin.

We ate in silence afterwards until all the muffins were gone. Then Derpy spoke up.

"I never did finish my explanation, did I? I'm such a firm believer in forgiveness and second chances because of how often it was shown to me." She leaned back in her chair with a deep sigh, and her eyes took on a faraway look.

"You don't have to tell me if it's a bad memory." I said.

"It's fine. It's good to talk about these kinds of things anyway. Thanks for caring about my feelings, though. Anyway, we moved to Ponyville about five years ago."

"We? Who else came with you?" I asked.

"My daughter, Dinky. We came to Ponyville to get away from my jerk ex-husband. She was just a little foal at the time. She's the reason I got away from that awful stallion. It wasn't for me, it was all for her." She sighed wistfully. "I got away from him, but it took a long time for him to stop affecting me. I got really depressed and took to drinking a lot. I'm somewhat of a lightweight, so that never turned out well. It got to the point where I couldn't be the mother I needed to be for Dinky, and the Foal Protection Service took her away."

She had to stop for a moment to wipe her eyes. I just sat there, unsure of how to respond to all this.

"That cut me deep, and I fell even deeper into depression. I was drunk almost every day. As you can imagine, this made it difficult to hold a job. The mayor was kind enough to give me a few odd jobs here and there, but after I accidentally destroyed the town hall she stopped hiring me.

"The final straw came at the Sisterhooves Social a few years later. She entered with her sister from the foster family she was with at the time. It hurt to see her doing so well without me that I began to think I didn't even need to be around anymore. Like, not around at all. Ever. Permanently."

At this point I was in a cold sweat. I wanted to say something to make her feel better, but I didn't want to say the wrong thing and make her feel bad or make her angry. It was obvious that she needed to get this off her chest, but why did it have to be me? Moreover, why did I care so much about hearing her out when I had no real reason to?

"By this point I was living in a tree in the park, and didn't have any bits on me at all. I did, however, manage to steal a bunch of meds from the pharmacy. I just took a bunch and lay down to die on a bench. That night was when I was given a second chance, and a new friend.

"A teacher by the name of Cheerilee was walking through the park on her way back to the school. She had forgotten her gradebook or something, neither of us can remember now. She saw me laying there with an empty bottle of powerful painkillers and she did the first thing she could think of to save my life. She bucked me in the stomach. Left quite the bruise, too. Worked though, I threw up all of that stuff. She carried me back to her place, still covered in vomit, and got me cleaned up. I remember waking up the next morning with a killer migraine and her screaming in my face."

That caught my attention. "Wait, she did what?"

"Insulted me."

"How is that supposed to help!?"

"It shocked me back to reality. Nopony had taken the time to snap me out of my depression, so she did it in the quickest and most painful way possible. She got in my face and told me that I owed it to my daughter to live on and be the best pony I could be, and that I had failed my little Dinky by thinking I could just leave her forever."

"I still don't see how that helped."

"It got me angry. Angry enough to try to prove her wrong, which of course I couldn't. After that, she took me in and helped me get my life back on track. Cheerilee constantly challenged me to do better, and I did. I got my life back, and later that same year I got back my little Dinks.

"Long story short, if Cheerilee had never saved my life and given me a second chance then I wouldn't be who I am today. Hay, I wouldn't be here at all. She didn't have to accept the broken drunk I was, but she did. If she could do that for me, then what kind of pony would I be if I can't even forgive you?"

I thought about that for a moment. It makes sense, I guess. It sounds like this Cheerilee pony used Derpy's anger as a constructive force to get her life on track. It also does reasonable explain why she is so forgiving. It isn't how I would have gone about saving a life, but maybe ponies just think differently than humans about this kind of thing.

Derpy's right eye began to slowly spin. Or maybe Derpy is just weird.

Spike cautiously opened the door to the library and peeked inside. He had seen all the curtains drawn when he approached, and that was never a good sign. He noted first that all of the ponies that had been sleeping in the main room of the library were gone. Second, that an odd glow was coming from the door to the basement.

The basement was an odd place in the otherwise normal library. He was hardly ever allowed in the basement since Twilight had made it her permanent lab a few years ago. She refused to talk about what she did down there most of the time, and had begun neglecting her friends in favor of science. Again. It had taken her long enough to break that habit, and here she was doing it again.

Spike dragged his thoughts back to the present and crept into the library, silently shutting the door behind him. He then walked over to the basement and pushed the door open just a hair to look through.

Twilight was channeling a spell while pacing around a large table, upon which lay Celestia and Luna. Her other friends were all in the far corner, still fast asleep. His draconic eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness and revealed instruments pushed to the side of the basement to make room for the other ponies currently occupying the space. Reassuring himself that it was safe, he pushed open the door and began descending the stairs.

"Twilight! You'll never believe this, but I found the human."

That must have ranked high enough on the 'importance' scale in Twilight's mind, because she turned to him with eagerness rather than frustration at having been disrupted.

"Where? What was he doing?"

"I saw him over at Sugarcube corner about half an hour ago. He wasn't doing anything really, just eating muffins and chatting with Derpy."

"This is awful! He's probably trying to win over the town through kindness so that he can incite a rebellion once they've come to trust him!"

Spike stopped for a moment before responding, just to make sure he had heard correctly. "Twilight, that's ridiculous. Derpy and the human were having a completely normal talk. Anyway, if he could take down both of the princesses then why would he need anypony to back him up? Whatever he's doing, I doubt that it involves harming anypony. He would have already done that if it was his goal."

"He already did, Spike. That's why Celestia and Luna are currently unconscious in a basement!"

"No, the other princesses are here because the human brought them here to prevent a panic. Why would he do that if he wanted to hurt them?"

"I don't know, but there has to be a reason. He already assaulted the lead diarchs of Equestria and used dark magic, both of which are serious crimes. I'm certain he isn't here to make friends."

"You seem to only be capable of seeing the worst of his actions! I trust you, Twilight, but I don't see the connections between what you think he is doing and what he already is doing."

Twilight was loathe to admitting that her logic was flawed, but Spike did have a good point. She'd begun to notice that he did that a lot recently. Spike's growth, both mentally and physically, seemed to be becoming much more pronounced. Twilight felt a great sense of pride for the young dragon. He had spent far too long feeling like he was stuck under the shadow of the Elements of Harmony, and it was good that he was becoming more self confident and independent.

Back to the matter at hoof though, Spike wasn't wrong. After what she saw the human do, she couldn't believe that he had good intentions. She did, however, see that her theories as to why the human did it were flawed.

Spike unfolded a small letter that Twilight had not noticed him carrying when he came in. "Twilight, you might also be interested in this. Discord sent it to me while I was out."

She picked it up in her magic and levitated it over to her so that she could read it.

"Sorry, I tried to get as much earwax off as I could."

"Earwax?" Twilight asked, dumbfounded as to how Spike could have gotten earwax onto the letter.

"The note popped out of my ear. It felt really weird, too."

The letter read:

Dear Nerd Twilight Sparkle,
Since the current raisers of the sun and moon are taking an extra long nap in your library and you did not do so, I took the liberty of setting the sun last night and raising it in the morning. I hate this job, so splash some water on the sleeping beauties and get them to do it so I don't have to.

Your Arch Nemesis, Friend, Discord.

Twilight could only stare at the note in frustration. "I've spent this whole time working on tracing the energy to find out who raised the sun, and it was just Discord? Wonderful. At least we can still use the celestial detection fields if I can get them to work."

"What could we possibly use celestial detection fields for? And why aren't they working?"

"The fields pick up on the specific energy used by Celestia and Luna. The human took their energy, so he can be tracked if I can get the fields to work. I don't know what's wrong with them, but I did everything exactly the way it is supposed to be done."

Spike picked up the book Twilight had been casting from and gave the instructions on the page a quick glance.

"Twilight, it says here to have the conduits outside so that they can pick up the celestial energy better."

"Celestia and Luna are right here. That's an abundance of celestial energy for the conduits to pick up on and trace."

"Alright then. It says here that you sometimes have to reposition the conduits. Did you try that?"

"Eight times."

"Did you try recalibrating the fields?"

"Twelve times. Like I said, I followed all the instructions."

"Did you try constructing additional pylons?"

"What?"

"I don't know. I'm just reading what the book says."

Twilight shook her head. That book was a strange one, indeed. "It doesn't matter. Spike, I need you to send a message to Thunderlane. He's the secondary weather manager, so he ought to know that Rainbow Dash will be unable to do her job for a while. Also send a letter to the Cakes and the Apples; they will need to find a way to compensate for a missing worker. Don't go into specifics. Just let them know that we don't know when they will be able to return. I'll find somepony to take care of Fluttershy's animals for the time being."

"I'm on it!" Spike said.

Twilight giggled quietly to herself as he sprinted up the stairs. Even after all these years, he was still happily her number one assistant. She would have to get him a gemstone later.

For now, she had to complete the spell. Keeping track of the human's whereabouts was the top priority. The safety of everpony was in counting on it.

Derpy and I parted ways after eating at the bakery. Her words and actions had touched me, and I was eager to meet her again.

Unfortunately, that was going to have to wait. Before I wasted any more time in this strange land, I needed to get to know it. I needed a place filled with knowledge and resources for me to extend my understanding of this world.

I needed a library.

Twilight was about to recast the spell when Spike burst into the basement, slamming the door behind him and bolting down the stairs.

"Slow down, Spike! What's going on?"

"The human! Here! Upstairs!"

"What!?" Twilight immediately ran over to the door and peeked through the slight gap at the bottom of the door. Sure enough, the human had just entered the library. He also had rudely ignored the "closed" sign. The nerve!

The human walked over to the blinds and fumbled with them for a moment, but Twilight had previously cast a spell to keep them shut. He gave up and walked around the room for a minute before grabbing a book. He opened it, but put it back a moment later.

Good, Twilight thought. Maybe he'll just leave since he can't read anything in this darkness.

I wasn't sure what was going on, but the library was extremely dark. The windows had been blocked to prevent almost all light from coming in, making it impossible to read anything. Not to be dissuaded, I searched for some alternative means of lighting the room. After a quick search, I found a candle on the desk. I tried searching for matches in the desk, but all the drawers were locked.

How am I supposed to light the candle now? I kept looking, but didn't find anything to light the candle with. Suddenly, I remembered that I did have a match. A lot of matches, actually. I pulled one out of my shoe and easily lit the candle. Maybe shoe matches aren't such a strange idea after all.

Twilight's hopes fell when the human summoned fire from his foot. "That shouldn't be possible! I didn't see a spell, and the matches are locked in the desk. Spike, you can see better in the dark. What did he do?"

"I didn't see that, but you probably want to see this."

Twilight turned away from the door and saw what Spike was looking at. The celestial detection field was lighting up between the conduits surrounding the princesses, probably in response to the huge amount of magic being carried around by the human.

"Spike, grab the spell book!" she said as she raced over to the conduits. "We might not get a chance like this again!"

I spent the next couple hours reading about the history of Equestria. I noticed that there was very little describing time before the reign of "Discord", whoever that was, about 3000 years ago. It only says that he ruled for a thousand years until Celestia and Luna used the Elements of Harmony to defeat him and turn him into a statue. I'd read more into the history of their capital city, Canterlot. It certainly was an interesting city. The book went as far as to claim that there were hundreds of unexplored tunnels deep in the mountain that the city was built on.

I was getting tired and hungry, so I put the book back where I had gotten it from. Part of me wondered where Twilight and her friends were, but the rest of me was too hungry and tired to care. I left the library and made my way out towards the edge of town to grab some apples from the farm before returning to my tree.

I managed to get a small fire going by the time the sun fell beneath the horizon. When I say that the sun fell, I mean it literally. The sun just dropped out of the sky like a rock. The moon popped into existence in its place a moment later and the temperature dropped quickly, but the fire kept me warm. Turns out that apples taste really good if you warm them up a bit.

I put out the fire after a while and climbed into the tree. I needed the sleep, but I had a bad feeling about the dreams that I might encounter. I didn't have any say in the matter though, so I drifted off to sleep with a warm meal in my stomach and a cold weight on my mind.