A New Ruler

Chapter 11: First Class

By the end of the week, Moonstone Manor had been restored to it’s former glory. The outer walls only needed a polish, and a few ponies were able to degress the age of the timbers within.

Really, everything only really needed a good cleaning, though the structure was another story.

Some beams were too far gone for magic to repair, so had to be replaced. Thankfully, this only happened a few times.

It turned out that there was in fact a moonstone mine in the basement, and the boxes were all full of bricks of moonstone, much to the delight of Twilight.

I ordered clothing from Rarity, as I said I would. It arrived within a day, and I was astonished at the quality. It was simply beautiful! There was not a single flaw in any of the dresses, and all twenty had been made in twenty-four hours. I thanked Rarity for them and decided to pay her double, just because I could, and because she’d also upholstered the furniture with a beautiful lavender silk.

School was starting in a few days, so I had to get the age regression spell correct. I nailed it on the first try. It wore off after about eighteen hours, so it was sufficient. I tested the spell again the next day, suceeding once again, and decided I would be going to school.

The sun was just coming up when I woke, giving me plenty of time to get to town. Though the path through the forest was dark, the ponies had relaid it, adding lamp posts about every ten meters, making it easy to navigate.

Believe it or not, walking a striaght line in the dark is harder than one might think.

I made myself breakfast, daisy sandwiches, but saved a few for lunch. I locked the front door behind me and proceeded down the kilometer long path to Ponyville.

I arrived a good while before the bell rang for the beginning of the day. I had been considering attending as a student, but realized I knew almost everything there was to know about Equestria. I still knew more than my friends, too, and had started reading Winter’s History of Equestria Complete Edition, which included human history in Equestria, and I must admit, it was very detailed.

I walked into the school.

“Oh,” said Cheerilee, “Hello, Ella.”

I nodded, “I’ve decided not to attend,” I said, “But I do know a great deal about Equestrian history, so if you want to take a day off sometime, I could fill in for you.”

“Thank you for the offer,” replied Cheerilee, “I’ll keep it in mind. Oh, Rarity was looking for you, but she was acting rather strange, compleely unlike herself, and was with Trixie, of all ponies.”

“Do you know where she is,” I asked.

“Well, I think she was on the way to your manor,” Cheerilee answered, “I directed her there. It’s like she’d never been here before, imagine.”

I thanked Cheerilee and headed back to the manor.

Sure enough, a purple-maned, white-furred unicorn in an elegant purple dress was waiting for me at the front door, but somthing seemed off about her.

“Hi Rarity,” I said as I got a bit closer, “What’s going on?”

She looked me with a face that bore somthing along the lines of disbelief, which confused me.

“Why does everypony keep thinking I’m her,” Rarity said, obviously annoyed, “I mean, I do look and sound identical to her, and have similar tastes, if not better tastes, in fashion as Rarity, but that doesn’t make me her, right?”

I stopped and stared at her, realizing I’d only seen four of my six friends, and only one of my friends was a fashion freak.

“Marcus, is that you,” I asked in awe.

Marcus, despite only graduating two years ago, always wore somthing fancy, usually one his black tuxedos. Actually, I’m pretty sure he was wearing a tuxedo on the first day of kindergarden, too!

“Finally somepony recognizes me,” Marcus said with a sigh, “I’ve been running around for months looking for someone else from back home. But if I may ask, who exactly are you, then?”

“I’m Ella,” I said, “I didn’t recognize you with out your tuxedo.” We both laughed at that.

After a little while, Marcus explained what happened.

“There was a party at the factory,” Marcus explained, “Edvard, my boss, invited me. I decided that it might be a good idea, so I went. When I got there, everything was set up but the place was deserted, except for sketch pads and designer clothes lying everywhere. I should have noticed the sketches depicted the clothing that was everywhere, but missed it. So I decided to work on some of my drawings, the ones of Rarity, you know the ones, right?” I nodded and he continued, “I waited about half an hour before I started getting thirsty, and went over to the buffet table. I looked around and found a bowl of punch that was almsot empty with a boxboard sigh that had 'drink me’ written on it. I did just that, and started to feel dizzy. I fell over, barely awake. I managed to make my way to the bathroom and looked in the mirror to see this looking back, the exact thing I’d been drawing for months. I heard somone come in and ran to the main room to confront whomever was responsible. There was a pony, dressed in a black hooded robe, so all I could see was her long, back mane. She said this wasn’t supposed to happen here and her horn began to glow when everything began to fall away. I suddenly felt myself falling and saw clouds fly past me. I looked down and saw the ground fast approaching, then I blacked out. When I woke up, it was morning, and I was here, in Equestria.”

“And then what,” I asked.

“I started exploring,” Marcus said, “I may like my fur gleaming, but that doesn’t mean I’m afraid to go on a little adventure when I feel like it, unlike the real Rarity. Then I remembered that Twilight might be able to help me, so I jouneyed here from the far side of Equestria, hence the time I’ve been here, and went to see Twilight, and she directed me to you.”

I sat for a moment to take this all in. I felt she was holding somthing back, but decided not to inquire just yet.

“Um, Marcus,” I said.

“Yes,” she said paitently. “Well, seeing as you are an exact replica of Rarity,” I said, “I was wondering if I could...” She cut me off.

“Very well,” Rarity said, “I’ve actually always wanted to be like this, but you already knew that. I guess I needed to be with someone from back home to calm me down.”

“Hey don’t worry,” I said, “Tim, Ellen, Carl and Wendy are here, too!”

“Really,” asked Rarity.

“Yeah, but they go by Buck Wild, Rainboom, Scribe and Wind now,” I said.

“Could we maybe go to town,” asked Rarity, “I’m eager to see anyone from back home.”

“Sure,” I said with a smile, “Just follow me.”

“One other thing,” said Rarity.

“Hmm,” I said.

“I have wings.”