Chapter 2: Mystery

By TAB

A cool breeze whipped through the Everfree, chilling Twilight right through her coat as she made her trek through the often dangerous forest. Tugging her scarves and equipment closer to herself in a half-hearted attempt to warm up, Twilight quickly figured that the cold would be well worth the slight discomfort. Tonight was Luna’s biggest meteor shower since she had returned from the Moon, and was in celebration of her one year anniversary of being free of Nightmare Moon’s corrupting grasp.

Not wanting to diminish the beauty of such a meteor shower, Twilight had decided to observe the shower from a shore in the Everfree forest, free of the polluting light from Ponyville. With her she had bought a high-power telescope, several writing pads, and the materials to set up camp for the night. She had brought along the camping the materials to sleep right at the shore, as she did not feel like travelling through the Everfree at night.The telescope and notepads were also for after the shower, as Twilight wanted to observe how the sky behaved in the Everfree.

Continuing along the path in the waning light of a sunset, Twilight sped up, wanting to arrive at her destination before the more ferocious animals of the Everfree made themselves known. Within a few minutes, Twilight arrived at her destination, just in time to watch the sun finally dip below the horizon. With decided quickness, Twilight set up camp, using her magic to set up her tent and firepit, lighting the former with a blast of fire magic. With the heat of the fire warming her chilled body,Twilight moved with renewed vigor, setting up her telescope on a bluff overlooking the main part of the beach. She adjusted the dials and its stand to focus it on the sky. She took just a moment to admire the view from the bluff she was standing on, watching as the waves rolled in and out, lapping at the edge of the shore. The lake stretched out for some distance, to the point where Twilight could just barely see the other edge of shore if she strained her eyes enough.

With a few minutes to spare, Twilight grabbed her notepads from her saddlebags and was finally ready to watch the shower. Sighing in satisfaction, Twilight sat down on what she assumed to be sand. Momentarily confused as fell on her back, whatever she sat on rolling from underneath her in the process. Twilight recovered herself just in time to watch what appeared to be a bottle roll over the edge of the bluff, still confused as to what exactly just happened.

At the same time however, the meteor shower began, immediately taking Twilight’s focus off of the strange object. Grabbing her notepads with her magic, Twilight began watching in earnest, her original invigor returning as she excitedly jotted down notes. Some time later, after the shower had finally ended, Twilight began her observations through her telescope. Much to her astonishment, the stars moved into their own formations, reflecting how the Everfree itself operated. While Luna’s magic was able to manipulate them, they ultimately rebelled, moving into their own unnatural formations in the night sky. However, Twilight found these formations just as beautiful as they were intriguing. After Twilight continued her observations for several more hours, and was barely able to keep her eyes open for any longer, she finally decided to retire for the night.

Rising at the crack of dawn, Twilight began her solemn duty of packing up her camping site and equipment. Using her magic to shrink the tent to proper carrying size, and covering the cooling embers of the firepit with sand, cleaning up her camp took surprisingly little time. With everything organized and squared to go, Twilight moved back to the bluff where her telescope was situated. Sitting down on her haunches, Twilight took a moment to relax as Celestia’s sun warmed her coat with its heat. After taking a moment, Twilight began the process of taking down her telescope. In the process, she noticed a unnatural depression in the sand and she remembered the bottle from last night. Briefly, she wondered how a bottle even got this far into the Everfree.

For a moment, Twilight feared that she had stumbled upon some vagabond’s hideout, but quickly decided the absence of any other refuse contradicted that train of thought. Moving to the edge of the bluff, Twilight peered down the side. About fifteen feet below, the bottle lay, hardly moved from the lapping waves nearby. Wanting to remove the trash before it got into the water, Twilight casted a teleportation spell, disappearing off of the bluff with a purple poof and rematerializing a few moments later on the small patch of shore. She turned around to find a glass bottle with an unfamiliar name along the side, with something white on the inside of the strange glass,

“Coke-Cola, who is that?” Twilight wondered to herself as she read the name on the bottle sticking out of the sand. As she lifted the bottle out of the sand using her magic, she noticed that the strip of white was actually a sheet of notebook paper jammed inside.

Intrigued, she unscrewed the metal top and quickly began reading the paper, beginning with:

“For you, Twilight”

Fifteen minutes later, Twilight sat in the sand, her mind completely occupied by the letter she had just read. “Somepony’s in love with me?" Was all she could think as her thoughts raced with usual Twilight enthusiasm, Luna’s shower just an echo in the back of her mind. Suddenly, a new thought clicked into her head, “Who is it anyway? ”She began re-reading the letter and the only name it offered was a simple signature:

“-Daniel”

“That doesn’t sound like a pony name, maybe it’s an alias.” Twilight thought aloud, already casting the teleportation spell to get back up to the top of the bluff. Gathering her belongs and stuffing the bottle in her saddlebag, she set off, determined to figure out who her secret admirer was.

Author's Note

Re-did this chapter because I was bored and was tired of looking at how bad it was. Hope you all enjoy! For those who want to view the original version of the story, it can be found on GDocs Here.

-TAB