Chronicles of Equestria II: The Magician, the Toy Maker and the Past

’The ballroom is in a dim, silent darkness. A few ponies whisper to each other, but quickly hush themselves as a single, shining beam of light cuts through the dark, setting its gaze upon an eloquently dressed, dashing stallion and a beautiful mare standing gracefully in a dress that feels as nothing less but a poem given form.’

A small clicking sound was heard, followed by a non-stopping, quiet “tick-tock-tick-tock...”.

‘Now the two, greet each other with a bow of their head, yes... And then step closer. The stallion, rises on his hind legs, balancing clumsily. The mare is quick to help him and soon they are both standing on their hind legs, their front hooves locked around the other, creating a single, balanced beeing with two hearts two minds, but indeed one soul on the dance floor, both of them completed by the other. A moment later, the clopping of their hooves on the wood starts a steady pace: One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. At this point, the orchestra starts.’

Another click, and the “tick-tock...” was joined by a louder, melodic music, a slow waltz.

’Slowly spinning around one another, spiraling in larger and larger circles on the floor. Then as the music lifts, the stallion bends down to allow the mare to lean ba- Perfect! Yes! They raise back,spin around each other, yes. One, two, three. One, two, three. Yes! Another graceful lean... Ahaha! A few more beautiful, harmonious spins, the mare twists around the colt and the music reaches the climax aaaaaannd, a final back lean as the music dies down.’

The rhythmic “tick-tock...” abruptly ended - along with the music - by a louder click which is followed by a series of faster ticking noises. The large, dark room is suddenly filled with light as the blinds on its windows separate, glowing teal.

‘Simply magnificent!’ laughed the teal unicorn stallion. ‘It follows Zherebetsky’s composition better than I hoped.’ He was standing over the still ticking automaton, depicting two finely dressed unicorns - a teal stallion and a golden mare - who were now dragged around just slightly above the surface of the large music box like the dolls they were, until they found their original places and took on their starting poses.

The delicate, polished and shining wood carved machine, with its fragile actors gave a harsh contrast to the surrounding workshop, filled with various tools and more than a hoofful of sawdust; though as workshops go, this was definitely among the more well kept ones, it’s tools organized in an uncanny fashion both by function and size. The furnishing was made of a couple of shelves, a two large cupboards, filled with old schematics and designs, three large tables - one with the schematics of the music box rolled out over it, one with enforced legs and with stone top, covered in sawdust and one final table with pieces of cloth, various small cogs, poles and other mechanical components scattered on it.

‘I couldn’t have imagined it would all turn out so incredibly life like.’ said Twilight Sparkle, standing behind the stallion in the workshop. ‘Your friend’s design is astonishing.’

‘Yes, she was quite gifted.’ smiled the stallion over his shoulder, while using a small, delicate duster to clean the prized machine of the workshop’s dirt. ‘But it would never have been possible without your help Miss Sparkle not to mention your tailoress friend. I mustn't forget to make her something in return. These miniature clothes? Beautiful!’ he added and gently lifted the contraption, flying it out of the room.

‘I didn’t really want to say,’ started Twilight unsurely, following the stallion out to the spacious corridor. ‘but I found it strange that the mare would be a unicorn.’

‘Hm?’ hummed the stallion stopping mid-step, but not turning back. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to pry, but you always spoke of her like you two were... Close. I half expected the other mannequin to be her likeness.’

‘Oh? But... Right, I told you she wasn’t a pony. Right. Um.’ the teal unicorn went on confusedly for a moment then continued his steps down the corridor, still not turning back and continuing in a careful tone: ‘Yes. I... You could say that we were... “Close”. The design is like this because.’ he paused for a moment, but before he could continue, Twilight interrupted.

‘It’s okay, I was just curious. No need to explain it if you don’t want to.’ she knew well that the stallion had his quirks, not wanting to talk too much about his past, in faraway lands among them.

‘As you wish.’ the stallion said relieved. ‘Did I really make her sound close though?’ he asked, looking back back at the mare while taking a left to enter the large front room of the building, still levitating the machine with great care.

‘Heh. Sort of.’ Twilight nodded, smiling at the somewhat confused stallion. ‘I’m pretty sure you mentioned her at least once every time we met the month, since you started this whole...’ Twilight was going to finish with something along the lines of “toy making business”, but entering the front room of the shop and looking at the countless contraptions she assisted in making, she realized that “toy” is not the best word, even if he prefers it.

Granted - apart from the large shelves - almost everything was indeed intended to be played with. There were dolls of course, but none of them was just that simple, some knew how to walk on their own, through the help of a few clever spells designed by the stallion, added to various unseen braces, that kept them going. Some others others could even fly around, since the transmutation spells created by this strange unicorn allowed for strong metals to be incredibly light. Then there were music boxes, none quite as delicately designed as the one he just brought out of the workshop, but all quite complex. Some were relatively simple, a small spinning model of a proud member of the royal guard, set to “The March of Eclipse”. Some more complicated. There was even one with a violin player where the music actually came from the doll playing its miniature violin. Twilight still didn’t want to believe she managed to make that one work. A couple of model trains, puffing magic smoke, randomly blowing their horn when wound up, a set of prank toys. A small lighthouse that stops turning and shines right at anypony that comes close. A clock that if you try to re-set to a different time, it waits a minute and rolls back to its previous setting. And even a complete set of chess pieces that occasionally try to crawl back to their previous spot.

And then there were those eggs. As soon as she told him about how she and “that dragon” ended up together, he decided to modify one of his previous ideas. The result was... Interesting.

In any case, the shop’s mechanical gadgets were more the last bastion of a dying art form than mere toys.

‘Yes, I suppose that is true.’ nodded the teal unicorn who seemed more concerned about his frequent mentionings of his old friend than Twilight. ‘I didn’t really notice it, until you mentioned it... I suppose this is what happens when you have your mind set on somepony for a very long time.’ he sighed and placed the large music box on a corner desk.

‘You almost sound like you’d like to forget her.’ Twilight fumbled around the topic.

‘Forget her? Never.’ the stallion said suddenly, turning to the mare ‘I don’t think I could and... And I think it would be the worst thing I could possibly do to her.’ he looked at Twilight for a moment then shook his head and turned back to the box, making sure everything was as it should. ‘What am I saying? You couldn’t understand. Sorry, just forget about it.’

‘Excuse me.’ Twilight replied apologetically. She was sure she could probably understand it if the stallion would just tell her what it is, but if he didn’t want help, she shouldn’t push.

‘Nothing at all...’ came from the stallion then he smiled at the ground. ‘I should be the one apologizing actually, making you create all these amazing contraptions after somepony’s designs who I barely say anything about beyond how brilliant she was.’ he looked up at the mare and continued: ‘Curiosity and the wish to inquire on more is simply natural. There are just things that are complicated.’

The stallion silently made his way behind a counter, filled with various little model ponies and other small toys. He took out a sign from one of the under counter shelves that had “Open” on one side and “Closed” on the other. He checked up on the large, twenty four hour clock above the counter which showed the time to be a quarter past one in the afternoon.

‘Should this feel so unnerving?’ he asked.

‘Hm.’ Twilight paused to think for a moment then smiled supportively at the stallion. ‘I can’t speak with the authority of a pony that would have braved life in untamed lands, met many cultures and created incredible spells, just to then become a toy maker in a small town. But from a “simple” librarian's point of view, who was a lot more nervous than she should have been when she became the librarian of Ponyville, I can say that the worst things that can come in through that door are known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders.’

‘Hah. Don’t even mention them.’ he smiled and came out from behind the counter, brushing his graying mane clean of dust with a gust of magic wind. ‘I unwittingly promised them to help find their cutie marks when we first met. Then I didn’t think I’d end up back here. Though maybe it’s better this way. I don’t like it all that much, to be dishonest I mean. Anyway, I think finishing that beauty was the best way to open this sho-’ he paused suddenly then laughed. ‘I almost forgot! I wanted to thank you in some way for all the help you’ve given me, setting this shop up.’ His horn glew teal and - out from behind the counter - a strange little statue flew to Twilight.

‘Uh, thank you.’ Twilight reacted, taking over the statue which she quickly recognized as the image of a Coyote. She didn’t see one in life before but read a lot about them, it was difficult not to. It’s eyes, which were made of pristine marbles, somehow worked into the wooden carving glowed with intelligence and curiosity.

‘It’s an old statue I’ve got from a group of elks.’ explained the somewhat awkward looking stallion. ‘My first thought would have been creating a small orrery, in fact I have the design for one, but as my use of magic gets, I wasn’t sure I could do it justice. It’s really not much, just...’

‘Oh, no thank you!’ Twilight interrupted. She got used to the strange, apologetic bursts of the stallion and wanted to make sure he knows that she’s quite happy with the gift. ‘It’s very thoughtful of you. Thanks. Though, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you even get this here? I thought most of your belongings were stuck out there.’

‘Well they are.’ he nodded. ‘In a way at least. If you remember the Tome I asked you to summon for me, I put similar bindings on every one of my belongings and been slowly trying to get them all back here.’

‘Ah, I just thought, you know...’

‘Yes, I know my spell casting isn’t the best, but the bindings won’t just disappear off the item so I can try again if I’d fail.’ the stallion explained then laughed. ‘I actually got one of my old weather coats back on the second try, but it was only the first try that I needed to fail to make it end up in a swamp or the sort, because it was drenched in mud and a small damselfly was trapped in its sleeve. The poor thing seemed pretty shaken when I’ve set it free.’

‘I suppose there were less heroic ends to a pony’s adventuring days than rescuing a damselfly who’s in distress.’

‘Well,’ started the stallion, smiling with a raised eyebrow. ‘I do try not to give us involuntary wanderers a bad name.’ he said then took on a more normal look, keeping the smile. ‘Back onto the task at hand though: This shop will not open itself, of that I’m certain so...’ he quickly lifted the “Open”/”Closed” sign from the counter and walked to the door. ‘Miss Sparkle?’ he bowed his head and courteously waited until the mare made her way outside, then followed.

Looking up, Twilight viewed the large sign over the door. In large, finely carved wood, the following read in amber and cream white letters: “Oakleaf’s Toy Emporium ~ Home to all Automatons!”

‘It really looks great, Mr Oakleaf. I just noticed that you’ve dropped “The Vagrant”.’ Twilight noted.

‘Well, it wouldn’t have looked as good, though I’m not sure how relevant that little made up title was to begin with. Not to mention having a home for once.’ said Oakleaf, drifting off for a moment before noticing himself and turning to Twilight.

‘I owe you a great deal Miss Sparkle. I’ll almost miss having you assist me, but life must go on! I’ve already got word from a very promising candidate for my permanent assistant and I’m sure you too have your hooves full with that Book Club you’ve been developing.’

‘You are welcome to join it at any time actually.’ the mare replied.

‘Perhaps. But I have a shop to start up right now.’ Oakleaf said and the door sign flew onto its place on the inside of the door turned to show “Open”. The stallion looked at it and shivered a little.

‘Would you like if I stayed?’ asked Twilight.

‘Oh no, I think I’ll try this on my own.’ he declined and had a strange light in his eyes that Twilight didn’t see yet. ‘Been a great while since I’ve been this excited about anything. Well not counting when I nearly fell to my death while arriving in Equestria, but this is different.’

‘I suppose I’ll leave you to it then.’

‘Indeed. Take care Miss Sparkle.’

‘You too Mr Oakleaf.’ Twilight nodded good bye and turned around, heading back to her tree home.

On the way, she recollected the past month she assisted the strange stallion. As strange as he was on occasion and as unbelievable his past seemed, he was a generally light hearted pony and he showed her a quite a few little things about magic that while weren’t completely new to her, brought a new light to her studies. Still, it was hard to fight off her curiosity, she would have loved to know who was his mysterious friend who created all these designs, or just a few stories from his life, but he’d always brush them off as irrelevant or something he’d rather not talk about.

However, she had other things to worry about now. Her book club was starting to really take off the ground and she and her friends were requested by Celestia herself to perform at Canterlot on Hearth’s Warming Eve, just a month from now, not to mention Spike returning to his old self after an over a month long period of relative passiveness after his “incident”.

She’ll have time to find out more - if she’ll still care - but in the end: Life goes on.