What Was Found Below

Although Twilight had been all over Equestria, she honestly wouldn't live anywhere else other than the small town of Ponyville.  In her studies with the Princess, she's seen the lunar rainbows of Vanhoover, the Grand Equine Statue of Manehattan, the cafes of Fillydelphia...  However, there is no town quite like Ponyville;  A town with culture and friendly mares and stallions all around.  The most important thing about this little town though, is the fact that her friends are there.  Her friends who she loves so dearly and could not live without.  Her friends that-

“Twilight, hey Twilight?”  A voice brought the unicorn back to reality as she was forced to focus in, only to see two bright blue eyes staring at her.  “Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, Twilight!”

“Sorry Pinkie, I let myself get a little spaced out there,”  She offered her a nervous chuckle which was returned with only a momentary deadpan glare.

“I was just saying that we need to get to the park, because the meteor shower is starting in an hour!”  Pinkie Pie's demeanor almost instantly picked back up as Twilight finds herself literally being dragged from the library.

Ponyville was her home now, and not even for all of the time with the Princess would she move back to Canterlot.  Her friends had become nothing less than the most important thing in her life, having filled a hole that, for the longest time, she wasn't even aware had existed.

Doing her best to keep up with the energetic mare, she couldn't help but let a smile slip up across her face.  That night was a very special night, you see, as it was not only the night of the Winter Solstice, but it was the night that the millennial  Stellaris Meteor Shower as well.  A legendary event that was literally a once in a lifetime opportunity, and she was certainly planning on spending it with nobody other than her friends.

“You won't believe how long it took me to put up all of those streamers,”  She rambled on with a wide grin that just made Twilight laugh.  Although she loved Pinkie to death, she really did know how to talk.  “Even with my party cannon!  Also, Rarity helped me decorate the trees in the park and Applejack helped me make the snacks and...”

She was suddenly cut off by the shouting of Rainbow Dash, who was waving a hoof from the top of the hill,  “Hey, up here!”

Twilight honestly loved how excited Rainbow was for the meteor shower too; she had even agreed to hold off the snow storm until tomorrow because of it.  Ever since the librarian had introduced her to the Daring Do series, Dash had thankfully become a little more open to what she would consider 'egg head' stuff.

Arriving atop of the hill, the two mares noticed Spike and Applejack spreading the red and white checkered blanket out as Rarity levitated a few different plates from her bag that were covered in various horderves.  Fluttershy, thankfully, had a less lavish taste and brought a plate of dandelion sandwiches.  Rarity certainly wasn't known to be the best of cooks anyway, let alone when she made food that was notoriously sub-par even when made by professional chefs.  Admittedly, that may just have been Twilight's complacency to having always to eat such garish foods at the castle.

“Thank you for setting up the telescope, Spike,”  She smiled and gave the baby dragon a gentle nuzzle before turning back to calibrate said device.  Luna's moon was always more beautiful than Celestia's ever was, although it certainly looked different without the famed mare plastered across the front.

“Man, when is this going to start?”  Rainbow groaned and zipped upwards into the air in a prismatic streak, popping open a bottle of cider and taking a deep swig from it.

Laughing at her impatience, Twilight just shook her head and turned her attention back to knobs on the telescope, which was proving harder to calibrate than she remembered it being.

“Easy there, tiger,”  Applejack bit down onto Dash's tail and brought her back down to earth.  “Don't get too drunk on us before it starts.  We don't need a repeat of your birthday party.”

“Hey, if I fall asleep on my birthday in a drunken stupor, that's my business,”  She huffed and puffed out her cheeks before complacently sitting down onto the checkered blanket.

“But I worked so hard on that party!”  Pinkie chimed in with a bit of chagrin of her own.  Her anger was short lived, however, as her attention was brought back to her pulling a multitude of snacks from her saddlebags and splaying them across the blanket in between the six mares and dragon.

Everyone had really outdone themselves this time.  Even looking out amongst the other groups of ponies, they all had their own picnics or games set up, despite the relatively cold weather from the solstice.  Twilight found herself nuzzling contentedly into her scarf as she watched the other ponies gather, feeling thankful that Rarity had made it for her some time ago.

“Everypony, if I may have you attention for a moment,”  A voice echoed from the microphone set up in the middle of the park with the speakers loosely strewn around for all to hear.  At its source was Mayor Mare, who was wearing a scarf and earmuffs of her own.  “The meteor shower should be starting any minute, but I just wanted to thank you all for showing up and for those that didn't, I wanted to thank you for dowsing your lights anyway.”

“I don't think the people at home can hear her,”  Applejack quietly joked, eliciting a soft snicker from Rainbow Dash.

“I would also like to thank Pinkie Pie and Miss Rarity for setting up the decorations on such short notice.  The shower, as some of you may know, happens only once every one-thousand years, so be sure to enjoy,”  She explained before being silenced as the first bright white streak zips across the sky, followed by a variety of different colors shooting behind hit.

Her voice faded out as Twilight had watched the flashing stars through her telescope with an almost childlike excitement flooding over her.  Ever since she was a little filly, she had always loved seeing the stars and was even obsessed with both astronomy and astrology; well, before she realized that astrology had absolutely no fact behind it.  Although she did admittedly still read about it for fun on rare occasions.

~*~*~

The meteor shower had actually lasted about an hour in itself, but Pinke had managed to convince everyone to stay an extra few hours for an after party at Sugarcube Corner, which Mr. and Mrs. Cake were relatively upset upon having her offer such a thing.  Out of politeness though, Applejack had agreed to move the party to her farm instead.  Although it was far more wild than the usual Pinkie Pie party, it was fun no less.

Twilight's hoofsteps echoed throughout the empty streets of Ponyville as she was careful not to stumble towards her library as she carried a sleeping dragon on her back.  Although she prided herself on never getting drunk, Pinkie had managed to spike the punch after the children either fell asleep or left, making in a little inescapable for the librarian.  Granted, she was still pretty upset at Rainbow Dash for giving spike a drink of hard cider while the unicorn wasn't looking.

After about fifteen minutes of trotting in the cold to help clear up the haziness from the liquor, she levitated her keys from her saddlebag and unlocked the door, hearing a satisfying click before walking in...

“Agh!”  Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs and reared up, accidentally sending spike flying off of her back and into the hardwood floor.  “What-  Why-  How?!”  She blubbered as she looked over the library with wide, horrified eyes.

“Jeeze Twilight, what's with the-”  He stood up, rubbing the back of his head before his gaze was drawn to the tattered books splayed out on the library floor, having pages torn from some and having others being completely mangled.  “Someone clearly didn't like your choice of books,”  Spike joked, only to receive a death glare from the librarian.

“Spike, stay here,”  Twilight ordered before slowly creeping her way towards the stairs, “I'm going to make sure whoever did... this... isn't still here.”

“S-Still here?”  Spike shuddered, wide eyes in realization as to what Twilight had meant.  He pressed his back against the door and kept his eyes peeled for anything that could be lurking in the darkness outside of the main room.

Twilight illuminated the dark hallway of the upstairs with her magic, creating a dim light to guide her way.  The fact that it was quiet had put her only more on edge as every little sound suddenly became significant; the ticking of the clock, the creaking of the floorboards underneath her, the wind outside, the noise from inside of the bathroom....

“Wait,”  Twilight whispered to herself as she turned to the closed door, hearing a soft, but audible scratching on the other side.  Her ears swiveled and twitched as they tried to find a comfortable position to listen in on the sound of something suddenly falling over, the distinct sound of flapping wings, and the scratching suddenly returning harder than before.

With her horn beginning to glow brighter with raw magic, she suddenly swung the door open, only to have something rush at her face, clawing and screeching before she managed to shoo it off with a burst of energy striking against the ceiling above.  “Owlicious?”  She groaned and held a hoof against her cheek, feeling a small bit of wetness trickle onto onto it.  “Don't scare me like that,”  She sighed and cracked open the window that the panicked owl was thrashing against, watching him steal away into the night.

Making her way into the bathroom, she noticed that the owl had knocked over her bottle of shampoo and conditioner, and left quite a few scrapes across the inside of the door.  “How did you even get locked in here?”  She quietly asked herself before popping open the mirror cabinet over her sink and levitating out an adhesive bandage, placing it over the wound with a deep sigh.  It certainly stung, but she agreed to clean it out later after she finished searching the house.

Making her way to the bedroom, she found it had actually not been disturbed as the books were in their rightful place, the bed was still neatly made, the dresser still wasn't disturbed, and even Spike's gemstone collection was left untouched.  “Weird...”  She murmured and started her way back towards the stairs.  “If they weren't looking for valuables, then what?”

“Twiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiight!”  She suddenly heard Spike's voice echo from downstairs, sending her into a full sprint towards the basement that he had called from.

“I thought I told you to stay-”  Twilight felt herself almost gag at the pungent stench of what was nothing short of a middle-ground between fish and wet ink.  Her words were stolen away from her as she noticed what the dragon was staring at, which was splattered across the floor in a bright yellow paint.

In what could only be considered three malformed question marks that were conjoined that the dot, it hardly formed what one could call a comprehensible drawing.  In truth, it looked more like an accident as if someone dropped a balloon filled with paint onto the hardwood floor and couldn't be asked to clean it.

“What do you think it is?”  Spike asked with wide eyes, pinching his nose shut with his claws; a power that Twilight honestly wish she had herself at that moment.

“I'm not sure...”  She admitted before gently laying a hoof onto the dragon's back,  “Spike, upstairs is clear...  Go get ready for bed.”  Spike opened his mouth in protest, but he noticed the mixed look of fear and concern on the librarian's face and simply gave her a hug and made his way to the bathroom.

Twilight continued down the stairs and gently placed a hoof against the paint, only to find out that it was perfectly dry.  “How long have you been here?”  She questioned and looked around the room for any evidence, only to find that it was untouched apart from the crude painting.  For a good fifteen minutes, she just stared at it before making her way back upstairs to start on cleaning the mess left by the intruder.

~*~*~

“It just seems like an awful lot of trouble for a prank,”  Twilight sighed and slumped over against the table in Rarity's kitchen, quietly thanking the mare for the cup of coffee that was offered to her.  “I asked Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie about it and neither of them know, and not to mention the considerable property damage that this 'prank' has caused.  That, and I checked and all of the doors were locked!”

“Twilight, you do realize that y'all teleport all the time, right?”  Applejack commented from across the table as Rarity took the third seat with her own cup of tea.

“That makes it worse, though!  Teleportation is a relatively difficult spell, so not too many ponies even know how to; let alone the debate on what percentage of those ponies that would actively destroy a library,”  Applejack's explanation only seemed to shake the mare worse.  “It's just that whoever broke into my house was clearly looking for something, and what if they didn't find it?  What if they come back?  I can't just put Spike in danger like that.”

“Twilight, calm down!  If y'all want, Ah'll come stay the night with you and keep watch,”  Applejack offered in an attempt to calm the increasingly frantic mare, reaching across the table and laying a firm hoof on Twilight's shaking one.

“I, for one, agree,”  Rarity nodded and placed her hoof into the pile with a smile, “I think it's been far too long since we've had a sleepover anyway...  Just as long as I don't have to jump out into the mud again.”

“... Or as long as Applejack doesn't pull a tree into my window,”  Twilight joked with a slight smile threatening to surface at the remembrance of their last slumber party.

“Hey, what can Ah say?  Ah know how ta have a good time,”  Applejack smirked before the three mares broke into laughter.  With the Winter Solstice snow storm on the schedule for that day, it was honestly a great time just to spend time together and relax.

“I may bring a few mannequins though, if that's alright;  I do have a rather large order to fill still, and I can't afford to fall behind,”  Rarity informed with a slight tinge of red in her cheeks as she remembered her promise to Fancy Pants.

“That's alright, I have plenty of room,”  Twilight offered hopefully, not really wanting to turn down the extra sets of eyes for that night.  If the intruder had indeed not found what they were looking for, one could never be too safe.

“Then it's settled; we'll meet up at the library later and have a fun little sleepover,”  Rarity smiled at her friends before deciding that they needed a lighter subject,  “So Twilight...  About you and Big MacIntosh....”

“... What?”  Applejack suddenly froze up.

~*~*~

It would have been a lie if Rarity were to say that she wasn't excited to spend time with her friends, even under such bizarre circumstances.  For the rest of that day, she found herself working hard to finish Fancy Pants' order and somehow managing to get around 90% finished with it.  As it stood though, she would either have to show up unfashionably late, or bring the remaining materials that she needed for the final two dresses.

Although Twilight had given her the okay to work at the library, it still felt like a bit of a waste of a night.  However, the fashion line could either make or break her presence in Canterlot that year.  As such, she decided to pack up the cloth she needed, tossing Opal off of a spool of cloth in a particularly lovely shade of blue.

“Let's see...”  She murmured to herself as her eyes surveyed the room for anything that she might be forgetting.  “Ah, there you are,”  She commented and levitated a small box filled with various gemstones across the room from the dresser.  “Gah!”

She found herself floored with gemstones scattered all around her as she met face to face with one of her mannequins, feeling her heart threaten to beat out of her chest.  “Not where I left you,”  She commented with a wry frown before turning to pick up the gems.  “However, I do need to bring you either way,”  She sighed, shrugging off the mannequins apparent movement as just her imagination.  With that, she levitated her saddlebags onto her back and began to carry the mannequin out of the shop with her with a slight smile appearing on her face.

“Let's bring some desserts from Sugarcube Corner as well, shall we?”  She spoke out loud, knowing that the mannequin wasn't going to answer.