The Quill and the Sword

by BloodQuill

Rating: everyone
Tags: Random, Adventure, Slice of Life, Main 6, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Spike
Length: 2988

When BloodQuill and Sylva move to Ponyville, an unexpected aid might help them deal with settling in

Sylva and BloodQuill have come to Ponyville to move in with her cousin, Twilight Sparkle, for a change from Canterlot, but moving to a new town with new ponies with strange personalities can be hard to cope with. When BloodQuill has trouble settling in, help might come from in most unexpected form. When a crisis comes along and the elements are needed, Twilight is captured and it's down to her inexperienced cousin to save the day.

Published 2012-03-27 21:44:03 UTC
Last updated 2012-05-31 15:56:55 UTC

Chapter 1

Blood Quill got her saddlebags from the train shelf above her seat. She was off at the next stop. The outgoing unicorn was uncharacteristically shy and nervous. Only a matter of minutes and she would be settling in with her cousin in this strange new town. She looked out the window again, fiddling with her hooves in anticipation. The train started to slow.

"Ponyville station. Everypony off for Ponyville station.”

She hurriedly stood and walked out of the train door. The bell clanged to signal its departure and left the station. She stepped off the platform and headed towards the gates. 'Welcome to Ponyville,' the sign greeted her cheerily. She looked down at the village she was entering. Small house lined the streets with little shops next to them. The all throughout the roads were happy, chattering ponies of all shapes size and race. It was certainly a change from the stuffy Canterlot atmosphere she was used to. Blood Quill was starting to warm up to Ponyville already. As she entered, some of the ponies turned to look at her as she walked in and waved.

The white pony felt slightly self-conscious that she was getting so much attention but was happy she was welcomed with the friendliness of the small town. The mare had come about three yards past the gate when a very alarmingly pink pony popped up in front of her.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie what's your name?" the earth pony said in an enthusiastic voice to match her appearance and entrance.

Blood Quill started to back away but remembered the other ponies' eyes were on her. She couldn't ruin the first impression in her new home.

"Um hi. I'm Blo-" a huge gasp emitted from the strange pink pony.

Before Blood Quill could figure out why she had gasped, Pinkie Pie engulfed her in a huge bear hug. The unicorn's eyes widened in surprise. If this was how all the ponies in this town acted, she would have to go through some serious culture shock settling down. The pony started to cry for her for seemingly no reason.

"Its ok new pony," she said, "Homesickness is only normal for being away but you really should lighten up! All us ponies here are really nice. We throw parties too! Well I guess that I throw most of the parties but they're always suuuuper fun and everypony loves them! One time I thought my friends didn't like them and I was sad like you are but then it turned out they actually had just planned another super fun fantabulous party for me and it was so fun! Even Gummy had a good time. He's my pet alligator!"

As she ended a green head poked out of the crazy pony's mane.

"Agh!" Blood Quill screeched jumping back in alarm.

"Oh, it's OK. He has no teeth, see?”

She said as the purple eyed alligator popped out and clamped its gums all over different parts of the eccentric pony's mane.

"I-I'm not sad," Blood Quill said.

"What?" Pinkie replied, quizzically tilting her head in at a strange and almost comical angle.

"You said I was sad. That's why you hugged me?" she finished more in a question then a statement. Pinkie put her head back a normal angle and it seemed as if a light bulb turned on.
"Oh yeah," she remembered. "Well you are sad! Look at your mane."

Blood Quill glanced at her well kept straight, red mane. She raised an eyebrow at the pony who looked back at her like it was completely obvious.

"My mane?”

"Well duuuuuhhhh," she said. A familiar mature voice came from behind her, "Oh Pinkie, who are you harra-, um... greeting this time?"

Pinkie bounced over to the source of the voice.

"Oh hiya Twilight! Look some pony new just came to town," she announced enthusiastically.
"Twilight!" the ‘new pony’ in question exclaimed. She rushed to her and hugged the purple unicorn. Pinkie Pie seemed surprised.

"You know each other?" she asked, her head going back to the aforementioned tilt.

"Last time I checked it was normal to know one's own cousin. It's good to see you again Blood Quill."

Realization dawned on the pink specimen before them.

"Oh this is so fantastically scrumidilliumstiously fudge-coatedly amazing!" the party pony started bouncing around the pair of unicorns, "We should have a cousin-family-reunion party! Ooh! And we can invite Rainbow Dash and Rarity and FlutterShy and Apple Jack and Gummy!"

The white pony just stared at her while the purple one rolled her eyes like this behavior was perfectly normal. She motioned for the red maned mare beside her to follow her. As Pinkie bounced away to plan her party, Twilight and Blood Quill headed towards the library.

When they were out of range of the enthusiastic party pony, BloodQuill whispered to Twilight, "Um, are all the ponies in this town so...?" She tried to think of a word to say that wasn't 'crazy'.

Twilight laughed and shook her head, "No, Pinkie's very special."

BloodQuill smiled in reassurance that her stay in Ponyville wouldn't be quite as it seemed. One of her higher up friends had been to the Annual Grand Galloping Gala and the Royal Canterlot Garden Party, both of which were ruined by a crowd of Ponyville "ruffians" (as her friends had said before huffing in unison and turning up their snouts) and her impression been derived from the popular opinion from back home. The pink pony hadn't helped her shake the stereotype.

The pair came before a huge tree that had been hollowed out at had several windows and balconies on it. It was very well kept which BloodQuill was sure was courtesy of her bookworm cousin. A purple and green reptile poked its head out of the door. BloodQuill new Spike from when Twilight and BloodQuill went to school together.

"Quill! I haven't seen you in like forever," he said beaming at her. "

Hey, Spike!" she replied, grinning. BloodQuill hugged her scaled friend.

"What's Sylva up to,then?" Spike asked, looking slightly concerned.

"She'll be here by tomorrow but she might get in late tonight. She had some business to attend to with princess Luna before she left Canterlot," BloodQuill said proudly.

"Wow, I'm happy she got that job as PA for Luna, but I'm sorry she has to give it up because of you guys moving here," Twilight said, feeling as if it were somehow her fault.

"She's fine with it actually. She always wanted to get away from Canterlot and go to a smaller town and Luna has found someone who can do the job almost as well," the other unicorn comforted.

"Well I'm sure she'll let us know when she's on her way," Spike pointed out, "Tea?"

The trio went into the library to have tea and catch up on each other's lives.

Meanwhile in Canterlot a tired indigo and black creature was making it's way through the halls of Canterlot Castle with a large stack of books. She backed through the large doors of the darker royal chambers.

"Princess Luna!" Sylva exclaimed.

The dark figure spread on the large canopied bed at the edge of the room jumped at sat up straight. Luna moaned.

"Why must we toil so far into my sleeping hours, my winged friend? It is nearly two past noon!" the princess complained.

"I'm sorry, princess, but you know as well as I that we have to finish your speech in time for your Coming of Age Ceremony tomorrow!”

She huffed putting down the stack she was carrying up the stairs and looked at them with loathing. The mare on the bed stood and walked over to her PA. The much taller alicorn examined the books in defeat. She sighed and sat down heavily in front of the pile, her ears falling back. She blew her knotted mane out of her face. She had no idea how it had become so untidy in such a small amount of time but more importantly she had no idea how the royal stylists were going to fix it by tomorrow evening.

“Princess, if you really want to sleep that much I can just write the speech today while you rest yourself. You’ll need to look your best for tomorrow anyway.”

The princess looked over at her assistant. Sylva was even more exhausted than the nighttime colored alicorn beside her. She had been working harder and longer than Luna for the past five nights and most of the day as well. She didn’t think anypony could ever replace her. A good assistant that would be able to put up with her temper was hard to come by and Sylva had been the best of the best.

“Thou shalt not sacrifice slumber on our..my behalf,” she scolded cheerfully, “Go to thy chamber and rest. I shall complete this alone.”

Sylva started to protest but a midnight blue aura appeared around her and lifted her up. Luna smiled at her, carried her out of the room with her magic and walked after her. She gently placed her out side of the door.

“After all, thou must meet thy friends in the evening,” she smiled and retreated back into her chambers to finish the speech before the alicorn had to raise the moon.

Sylva smiled as she turned around and walked to her chambers. Rest was all she needed right now. Most of the castle staff were rushing about and attending to their duties going about the day’s duties. That reminded her how she was supposed to get used to being awake during the day time if she was to live in Ponyville. She wasn’t sure how she was going to manage it but she was just going to have to have a ton of will-power. On the other hand, she was really looking forward to seeing Twilight and Spike.

Happily, she retired to her room and hoped she didn’t oversleep too much as she did. As she lay on her small cozy bed, she thought of what Ponyville would be like. The last few lingering thoughts being her new home before floating off into a dream-filled slumber about speeches and Canterlot and of the new friends she would make in Ponyville.

Author's Note:
First story. Please don't kill me with hate! I would appreciate it.

Chapter 2

BloodQuill, Twilight and Spike sat around the small table in the middle of the library floor. The three of them had been talking steadily for a few hours. Finally, Spike noticed the clock and hopped up to prepare dinner. Twilight and Blood Quill sat in an awkward pause for about a minute. Without Spike's lighthearted charisma the conversation lacked in subjects to discuss.

"Sooo," Blood Quill began after a while, "have you visited your mom and dad recently?"

Twilight let out a short breathy laugh as if she had forgotten to breathe since Spike left and relieved to finally have a topic to cling to.

"I know it's been so long since I went back to Canterlot for anything but emergency calls," Twilight sighed regretfully, "can't be helped I suppose but I do miss them. I've been so busy between my studies and my friendship reports that I had almost forgotten about my family to tell the truth."

"I know what you mean. I haven't been to see my parents for a really long time. Neither has Sylva. Writing my books and being a Princess's personal helper are both full time occupations."

The two started talking about their work and family and soon were back in a steady conversation. Spike came in with a huge platter of food for the talkative cousins. They all sat down and enjoyed a nice meal oblivious to the rest of the world. Nothing could go wrong with the cousins back together again.

A small white unicorn sitting at a table in the corner of a room. A purple unicorn who looks two years older older walks in and sits next to her. The smaller one looks up at her with large, rose eyes.

"When will I get my cutie mark Twilie?"

"Don't worry, Q," the purple filly next to her comforts.

"But Twi, everyone in my class has their cutie marks except for me!"

"I know but don't get yourself so worked up about it. Cutie marks explain your destiny. You can't just rush something as important as that!"

"I know but if I'm going find out my destiny shouldn't I know it now so I can have lots of practice for my career?"

"Well, maybe you have a special something that doesn't need as much practice as the other fillies' and colts' in your class," the older unicorn reasons. "Or you could just be something super special," she says poking the other filly playfully.

The small one grins hugely and wraps her hooves around the purple pony's neck, nestling her muzzle in the older fillie's mane.

"I love you, Twilight," she says, "you're the best cousin anypony could ever have."

The older filly returns the hug.

"Promise you won't leave, Twilie?" the small, snow-white coated unicorn says, "I need you to promise you'll stay here always to make me happy."

"I promise."

Twilight opened her eyes suddenly, the last words of her dream still with her.

"I promise."

Twilight didn't ever remember that moment until now. She had forgotten it about it completely because of being busy.

After all, wasn't that exactly what they had been talking about just last night at dinner? Being too busy for anything like memories or family. But, somewhere in the back of Twilight's mind, she did remember.

A pebble of guilt bloomed into her heart remembering that now.

Why did she forget? Shouldn't she have had this dream when she was about to leave for Ponyville?Of course not.

BloodQuill had testing the day she left for the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville and certainly couldn't have come to see her cousin off to somewhere that everyone expected her to be back from the next day. She had told Twilight that she wanted to stay in Canterlot this year.

"Sorry Twilight finals are coming up. Do a good job of organizing it though."

"It's okay, Quill," Twilight had responded, "I'll be back day after tomorrow anyway."

"I'll miss you"

Twilight hadn't forgotten those words, though. No matter what she did in Ponyville, Twilight wouldn't get too busy to forget those words. Sometimes she would be having a really good time in Ponyville, whether it was at one of Pinkie's famous parties or there was a sale on encyclopedias at the bookstore, and she would think of those words. And suddenly it would all seem meaningless.

The pebble grew slightly heavier.

A bump from the room next to twilight's woke her up from her trance. BloodQuill was here now so it really didn't seem to matter now but Twilight couldn't help but feel guilty. She shook her head to try to clear it.

"You okay?" Spike asked just waking up.

"Uh, yeah, fine," Twilight replied blinking away the sudden dizziness.

She made her way towards her cousin's room at a brisk trot in an attempt to leave her thoughts in the other room. Spike groggily stood up and stumbled after her to start breakfast. He went down to the kitchen to begin his day. When Twilight entered BloodQuill's room she was greeted by two familiar faces.

"Sylva!"

Twilight ran over to the midnight dragon and hugged her.

"Wow! You're almost as big as Spike," she said and immediately feeling older than she was for it.

She blushedand put a hoof to her mouth, embarrassed by her outburst.

"It's fine I'm totally used to it," Slyva giggled.

"Spiiiike!" Twilight yelled, making the other two in the room flinch.

"Yeah?" Spike yelled back from the kitchen.

A clang of a pan falling to the ground came from the kitchen immediately followed by the sound of tiny padded dragon feet running as fast as tiny legs could for the room the three girls were stationed it. They unicorns and other dragon giggled in unison.

"Sylva!" Spike panted as he came to the door holding onto the edge of the door frame.

Seeing the three giggling made him blush and in an attempt to hide it by lowering his head towards the ground in an to make it look like he was just tired.

"I missed you too, Spike," Sylva said, walking over to hug him.

He tried returned the friendly hug and stood there just tall enough to make trying to hug her back awkward.

"Hey!" Spike said remembering something. " Pinkie Pie said to head over to Sugar Cube Corner for a surprise!"

BloodQuill glanced at Twilight.

"Is that the...."

"Yes," Twilight said, cutting her off.

"Right..." BloodQuill said slightly nervously.

Sylva looked slightly nervous too.

"I think I know who Pinkie Pie is," she said, " I came off the train last night and a pink pony claiming to be called Pinkie Pie came out of nowhere and started singing me a song while bouncing around me in circles and begged me to be her friend."

"That definitely sounds like Pinkie," Spike muttered.

"So is every pony around here like that?"

"Um, no, thank Celestia," Twilight responded, "but I imagine you will get a little extra attention, since you're new."

"So let's go!" Spike interrupted, hurrying out the door and bouncing up and down by the coat rack in anticipation. Sylva tagged along behind him in the same way she did in Canterlot, falling into old habit.

"Why is he so worked up to see Pinkie Pie?" BloodQuill asked Twilight quietly.

"Oh it's not Pinkie, it's where she lives," Twilight said mysteriously.

"And the inevitable fact she's throwing you guys a totally awesome party!" Spike added helpfully

Twilight shot him a Look.