The Chronicle: Arrival

Chapter 3

Two Days After Arrival

Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes to the bright light in front of her and squinted in excruciation. She put a hoof over her eyes and charged her horn to move the light away from her.

                “Ahh!” the mare screamed in anguish, feeling her horn send her magic backwards. That had never happened before and she was highly unprepared for it. She lunged forward in her bed and touched her highly sensitive horn.

                “Oh no! You didn’t just try to use magic, did you!?” Twilight rubbed her eyes, unobscuring her vision to see an Earth pony stallion with a pair of bushy eyebrows looking at her worriedly. “You can’t use magic! It’ll make you worse!”

                “W-what happened? Where am I?”

                “I do not know what happened, I’m sorry, but I can tell you where you’re at. You’re at Canterlot Castle Infirmary, the best hospital in all of Equestria.” He sounded extremely proud of his place of work.

                Twilight put her hoof in front of her and said, “Can you move the light?”

                “Oh! Sorry,” the doctor pony stated apathetically. He pushed the overhead lamp away and said, “Sorry. My colleagues and I were inspecting your horn for any cracks…”

                “My horn’s cracked?!” Twilight screamed, petrified of even the possibility.

                “No, no, no! There is no need to worry, Twilight Sparkle. It’s just a common procedure whenever a Unicorn has a magic overdose. You should be glad you’re even alive. Your friends told us about how you teleported them away.”

                “Are they okay?”

                He nodded and continued. “But you could have died. Even an Alicorn barely has enough magical ability to teleport someone else without them with. Needless to say that you succeeded with no doubt that it came from your training with Celestia, but it was extremely dangerous for you to do such a thing.”

                “I know…” Twilight sighed as she finally lying back, closing her eyes tiredly.

                “That will be quite enough, doctor,” a familiar voice said. “I would like some time alone with my student.”

                “As you wish, your Highness.”

                Twilight sat up immediately after realizing who had entered the room. A great smile appeared across the young mare’s face but slowly diminished as the Princess came closer, showing her disproving expression. The doctor shut the door behind him.

                “Princess Celestia?” Twilight started carefully.

                “Twilight Sparkle, I am very disappointed in you.”

                Twilight felt tears beginning to quell up in her eyes. “W-what?”

                “You risked your life sending your friends away from you.” The grand white Alicorn looked sternly at her student and noticed her fear. The next time she spoke, she calmed her tone to a more soothing and compassionate tenor. “Though I do understand your concern for wanting to protect your friends, but have you learned nothing from your friends yet? They are supposed to be there for you when you need them and you needed them. Furthermore…”

                Celestia saw Twilight’s watery eyes begin to let loose and decided to stop lecturing her. Instead, the Princess nuzzled her student. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound angry. I was just a little scared for you is all. You had been there for so long by yourself.”

                The purple mare rubbed her muzzle against her mentor’s and cried a little. “I understand…” Her voice cracked slightly, fear still audible.

                There was a moment of silence between the two when they parted but Twilight had no words she could speak. She had so many questions about what had happened but no words to describe such questions to her mentor. Celestia saw this conflict in Twilight’s eyes and smiled down at her, casting her brilliant light upon her.

                “You want to know what it was you saw, don’t you?” Twilight nodded. “Okay…I don’t know.” Celestia looked at Twilight’s shocked face and giggled slightly. Twilight looked at her weirdly and yawned tiredly. “I think you need to sleep for a bit. I’m having my best workers inspect the site right now. We’ll both know more by tomorrow.”

                “Really?”

                “You sound surprised.”

                “No, I mean when I was in the forest…there was this smoke and we felt…” The young mare sighed and shrugged, looking at her hooves. “We felt dirty and I kept feeling things that didn’t feel right…everything was wrong and backwards too…” She rested her head on the pillow beneath her.

                Celestia smiled. “You had a rough experience. Now just try to rest. I’ll send for your friends so they can visit you.”

                Twilight closed her eyes and listened to Princess Celestia’s receding hoofsteps. It soothed her to listen to any sound of her mentor. It filled Twilight with happiness to know that her princess—the kindest, gentlest soul in all of Equestria—had taken her as her personal student in magic. She couldn’t imagine losing her.

                “Princess?” she started, suddenly remembering the feeling of loneliness.

                “Yes, Twilight?” she replied at the doorway with a kind smile.

                “You’ll never leave me, right?” It was an innocent and worried question, but the incentive was far darker than Celestia was willing to admit.

                “Why would you even ask such a thing?” Celestia started, feeling saddened by her student’s sudden and noticeable feelings of loneliness.

                “Will you?”

                The princess smiled uneasily and went back over to her student. She nudged Twilight’s chin gently and said comfortingly, “Never.”

+++

The young purple Unicorn dreamed. She liked to dream and she would sometimes try to escape the harsh reality around her for her dreams. The world was so dark and twisted, she knew it, and Celestia had tried her hardest to prevent her from having doubtful thoughts about the world. She understood her mentor’s struggle and desire to keep her “innocent” but for how much longer until Twilight could finally be a grown-up too?

                Twilight dreamed of soft hills of rolling grass that smelled like nothing she could remember. There was a willow tree above her and it gave her a soft support for her head, very much unlike a tree. To better understand what she was lying against, the purple Unicorn turned her head slightly and saw her library in the distance but that was all she could see. No indicator that her head was laying against a pillow or a cloud.

                So she turned her head to her right…

                Massive, towering spires of metal, glass, and fire dominated the distant scorched lands. Twilight didn’t react to it; it was as though it was a common sight. She gazed upon the burning city ahead of her, not recognizing it as any she had ever seen in Equestria but knew it as a city.

                “It will be over soon,” Celestia’s voice said softly.

                Twilight began to turn around to see what was softening the willow into a cushion like feeling but still found nothing except a message etched sloppily into the side of the willow tree.

Find him.

+++

The mare’s eyes shot open as the sound of an opening, creaking door echoed curiously through the room. She scanned around for anypony nearby and came up empty. The door was slightly ajar, however, and the warm presence of her friends was around her.

                “Girls?” she called out, still reeling from her dream and unsure if she was composed enough to see her friends. “Are you there?”

                “Twilight!” a high pitched squeal escaped from outside her room. Within seconds, the sound of scales slapping against the strangely checkered floor alerted the Unicorn to Spike. She watched him jumped slam through the door and leap five feet to her bed. He embraced her strongly, forcing a gasp from her.

                “It’s nice to see you too, Spike,” Twilight said, happily embracing her baby dragon.

                “Are you okay? The doctors said you’d be fine but you’ve been asleep for a long time and…”

                “Spike, clam down,” she replied, easing his worries slightly and giving him reason to finally separate from her. “I’m fine, but how are you? When the meteor fell, you were taken to the library and I didn’t see you.”

                “I’m fine. A little sore on the back of my head ‘cuz I hit my head, but other than that I’m fine.” The baby dragon’s ear twitched slightly and he smiled. “Our friends are here!”

                Twilight smiled as she too began to hear the familiar sound of her friend’s hoofsteps. Applejack was the first to enter, followed by Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and finally Pinkie Pie, who wore a strangely out of place party hat.

                “Girls!” Twilight exclaimed happily.

                “Twilight!” the other five ponies replied in their own personal ways. The entire group was pulled into one big embrace with Pinkie’s wide forelegs.

                When the embrace had ended, Applejack and Rainbow Dash gave the purple mare a stern look of concern and contempt.

                “I know ya don’t want to hear this right afta wakin’ up, but what were ya thinkin’ sendin’ us away like that?!” Applejack shook her head unhappily. “You could’ve gotten hurt all by yourself.”

                “I know,” Twilight replied earnestly. “I’m sorry, but I was genuinely worried for you both…”

                “We know,” Rainbow Dash interrupted quickly, “and we were worried about you!”

                “You have no idea how much they wanted to go back for you, deary.” Rarity gave a soft sigh. “We all should have gone with you…”

                “No,” Twilight started, shaking her head. “You did what you needed to do; all of you. I shouldn’t have sent you two away, and I am sorry. Please, let’s not dwell on this any longer, okay?”

                The entire troupe nodded half-heartedly, but it was Fluttershy who spoke up, addressing the elephant in the room.

                “So, um…Twilight, w-what happened? If…if you don’t mind telling us.”

                Twilight looked into each of her friends uneasily. She had no idea how to describe what she saw: frozen fire, cold during summer, sand where dirt should be. Everything was backwards near the crash site and, the more that Twilight thought about it, the more backwards she had been as she drew near it. She knew better than to send her friends away when her best strength was her friendships.

                “I…I don’t really remember.” The lie tasted nasty on her tongue, like rotten fruit and dirt.

                Applejack gave Twilight a curious look that frightened her. She hoped that the Element of Honesty wouldn’t see through her lie. Twilight simply wasn’t ready to discuss what she saw.

                “At least you’re okay!” Pinkie exclaimed, jumping into Twilight’s view with waving forelegs. “Do you know what this calls for?!”

                “A party?” Spike replied eagerly.

                “No, silly!” the pink mare replied with a grin. “We need to start fixing Ponyville! I mean think of all that shattered glass! And that way we can have two reasons to party, making the party even better!”

                “I don’t mean to ruin the moment, girls,” Rarity started cautiously, “but Princess Luna and Celestia have already repaired most of Ponyville. Additionally, I think Twilight is not in a good enough shape to be going anywhere.”

                “I agree,” Applejack said nonchalantly. Twilight couldn’t help but feel that Applejack was simply siding with Rarity out of the nostalgia for the lumber party incident.

                “Yeah. I…I just need some more rest. My horn still kind of aches.”

                “Okay, we’ll get out of your mane…” Rainbow Dash started, drifting towards the door.

                “No!” Twilight exclaimed, suddenly feeling fear. She had no idea where it came from, but she was terrified of the thought of her friends leaving. “I mean you don’t have to leave just yet, do you? I’m not that tired.”

                “Why, of course we can stay,” Rarity started, lifting her chin slightly.

                “I wish that I could, but I promised Big Macintosh that I’d wrangle up them critters that took shelter in our trees.”

                “And…and I was supposed to help. Please don’t be angry.”

                “It’s okay, Fluttershy. How about you Pinkie? Rainbow?”

                “I can stay,” the blue Pegasus stated flatly. “But I can’t guarantee I won’t get bored.”

                Everypony looked to Pinkie Pie; she sat in the corner playing with a slinky.

                “Where’d you get the slinky?” Spike asked. Twilight touched his back gently, making him remember who it was he was talking to. “You know what, never mind.”

                “No, I just found it! It was next to Twilight on the floor.”

                Twilight looked at the slinky closely, noting its intricate paint design. In its placid state on Pinkie’s hoof, she could see the swirling colors of the sky, grass, and fire all merged into one beautiful gouache. She couldn’t help but think she had seen it somewhere before though. Was it a gift from Celestia? Maybe her parents or her brother? It made her curious.

                “Do you plan on staying?” Twilight asked curiously.

                Pinkie Pie shook quickly. “Nope. Gummy and I need to start getting some instruments ready and the only xylophone for miles is here in Canterlot. I need to go get quickly.”

                “What for?” Rainbow Dash asked. There was curiosity and arrogance in her words.

                The pink mare merely shrugged. “I just have this feeling that we’re going to need them. Like…like a swarm of parasprites are coming or something.”

                “Parasprites?” Twilight looked at her friends unsurely. “What are those?”

                “They’re little colorful bugs that eat everything!” Pinkie exclaimed. “They ate all of the rocks my family harvested one year when I lived on a rock farm which is weird because they don’t usually eat rocks.”

                The group nodded and everypony began going their own ways.

                “Don’t worry, Twi. We’ll be back tomorrow or the next day.” Applejack tipped her hat towards Twilight kindly.

                Twilight smiled until everypony had gone out of view except Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Spike, who sat at the far end of the bed.

                There was a moment of estranged silence between the three ponies as Spike looked between Twilight (concernedly) and Rarity (lustfully).

                “So…” Twilight started. “The princesses went and fixed Ponyville?”

                Rarity nodded. “I was the only one to see it. I mean out of our group. It was absolutely magnificent! The floated down each street singing like an opera and their voices were so beautiful, shattered glass and cracked wood came together like nothing had happened.”

                Twilight smiled happily. Celestia was as kind as she was said to be and Twilight knew this as fact, but she couldn’t help but feel humbled by the princess’ generosity.

                “And how is Ponyville holding up?”

                “Well, I don’t mean to brag,” Rainbow started, “but I helped calm everyone down when Zecora came to town.”

                “What? Why were people afraid of Zecora?”

                “Because she’s totally creepy!” Spike exclaimed, biting his lip fearfully.

                “Plus her stripes are so garish!” Rarity cried, using her fashion sense to rationalize fear of the zebra.

                “Rarity,” Twilight sighed, “she’s a zebra. She’s born with her stripes.”

                The white mare pretended to faint.

                “Okay, just stop!” Twilight exclaimed, feeling a nerve break in her patience. “She isn’t creepy and she isn’t evil. I’ve actually had a civilized conversation with her before and she is actually fairly sophisticated for not being used to our customs.”

                Twilight felt no shame in lying about meeting Zecora, but she did feel shame in the fact that she had lied again. Twice in one day? Usually it was only twice a years and those were accidents. Was still reeling from her encounter with the meteor site? Were those evil feelings still affecting her?

                Whatever the reason, Twilight’s words left a scarring thought in the two mare’s minds, and the purple Unicorn could see it. She felt conflicted about it though. Was it really worth lying to her friends? What if Zecora was evil and malicious? She hadn’t seemed like it during their brief encounter in the forest.

                Thoughts began to race through her mind. Was everypony like that towards other ponies that were from different and strange cultures? She hoped not, but she was not willing to let her naïve nature consume her thinking this time. There were a lot of xenophobic ponies and some of them probably didn’t even know it.

                “You know what girls,” Twilight started. “I’m getting kind of tired now. I’m terribly sorry, but I need some rest.”

                “Are you sure?” Rainbow Dash asked. “You sound fine.”

                “I just got really tired for some reason,” Twilight lied. “Can I get some rest please?”

                “Of course, darling.” Rarity nudged Rainbow Dash gently. “Let’s leave her be, Rainbow, dear.” The blue mare nodded.

                “Can I stay?” Spike asked worriedly.

“Of course. I might need someone to wake me up if the princess comes back.”

                Spike nodded and curled up into a ball at the edge of the bed. Twilight watched as her two friends left with Rainbow Dash still looking unsure. The purple mare pulled her blanket up to her shoulders and rested her head on her pillow yet again.

                “Hey, Twilight?” Spike asked quietly.

                “Yes, Spike?” she replied, closing her eyes slowly. She heard little of his question except the last two words:

                “…find him?”

                “What?!” the Unicorn exclaimed, sitting up straight and almost pulling the blanket out from under Spike.

                Spike gave a worried look. “I asked if you knew where Shining Armor is or where to find him. I think that slinky is his.” He pointed to the slinky-toy on the floor beside the bed, right where Pinkie had left it.

                Twilight took a few deep breaths inward and sighed. “He’s in the Royal Guard. I haven’t really talked to him since I came to Ponyville.”

                “I’m sorry, Twilight. Good night.”

                The purple Unicorn nodded, pulling the blanket back up to her shoulders.

“Good night,” she added, but Spike had already lazily fallen asleep.

Yet as she closed her eyes one final time, Twilight felt like she wasn’t going to have a good night’s sleep.