Ten Days, Ten Pony Stories

Ten Days, Ten Pony Stories

Day 1: The Over-Due Book, by Princess Twilight Sparkle

Spike, take a note.

Dear Reader,

I am Princess Twilight Sparkle the Alicorn, the Princess of Friendship, and was once the faithful pupil of Princess Celestia. I am currently living in a crystal castle that took the place of my library after it was burnt down.

I was sent a letter by Doctor Whofan, code named '611' or 'F.A.A.', whom requested me to write to him something that happened to me this week. I was rather crossed with him because of what he sent a few weeks back to Pinkie Pie and the things that happened because of it. But after some consideration, I have decided to follow his request and have my Number One Assistant, Spike the Dragon, to write it all down for me.

“You got that, Spike?”

“Yep! 'Ready when you are!”

“Okay. Ahem,”

I hope you will enjoy.

Your Faithful Writer,

• Princess Twilight Sparkle

It was the 8th of February of the 1,004th year of Celestia’s reign. I was just finishing up on re-shelving my books in my Chrystal library for Spring-cleaning, while Spike dusted the whole castle. We were almost done, when suddenly came a knock on the door.

“I got it!” Spike shouted as he headed for the door. I decided to let him handle whatever it was and continued to organize my books. “Hey, Twilight!” Spike called as he entered my library.

“Yes, Spike?” I asked.

“It’s Derpy-” he was about to say before I gave him a glare for using her nickname the residence of Ponyville calls her. “-ah, Ditzy Doo,” Spike corrected himself. “Ah… is it ‘Request for your presence’ or something…?” he asked. I laughed, then told him he didn’t have to do that. He shrugged, then skipped to the point. “Anyway, Ditzy Doo wants to see you basically.”

        “I’ll be on my way.” I told him, then flew my way to the entrance of my castle to greet Ditzy. “Ah, hello Ditzy,” I greeted. She saluted, her one eye rolled down while the other focused on me. She… does that. She's a pegasus, and, not meaning to be rude, but… has a slight problem since birth. Ponies make fun of her for that, and calls her ‘Derpy Hooves’. “Ah… yeah, thank you…?” I said, unsure of how to respond to that.

“Wait, am I doing it wrong?” Ditzy asked. “Oh, I remember now!” she bowed. I avoided the temptation to laugh, and cleared my throat.

“Ahem, arise, my subject.” I said with a forced, stern expression. I’ve been a Princess for two years, and I’m starting to get use to it. Ditzy didn’t raise. She didn't understood. “Um… you… can get up now.” I rephrased. She continued to bow. “... you can stop bowing down now…” I rephrased once again, and this time she understood. She rose right back up with a gasp for air. She most of held her breath the whole time. Ditzy Doo is a bit… not in the right mind, sometimes. But she writes good poems, though.

She stood still with a smile, waiting for me to say something.

“Ah… what do you want, Ditzy?” I asked. Silence. “... can I help you…?” After another moment of silence, she finally spoke.

        “Permission to speak, sir!” she stated with another salute. Once again, I held back a laugh.

        “Permission granted, Ditzy.” I answered. She suddenly gave me an odd look.

        “'Purr… mish… in'…? What’s that?” she asked. Somehow I managed to keep a hold of myself and didn’t smack my head onto the side of the door.

“So you want a book, a thing with writing on paper…”

“Ah, ha.”

“And you came here to my big, shiny house, my crystal-castle…”

“Yeah.”

“And you came here to my library, a place where I have those paper-books...”

“Sure.”

“So you want to borrow one of my books in my library…?” I asked carefully, hoping there wouldn’t be another misunderstanding.

“... yup!”

I sighed with relief. I thought our conversation would have never end! We trotted on our way to the library. Luckily most of my re-shelving had been done before I had somepony come over.

“We’re here,” I said. “So, what book do you want to borrow?” I asked.

“‘Borrow’? Why would I want to borrow? Isn’t that wrong?” Ditzy asked.

“Um… how so?” I asked.

“Don’t you know what borrowing is?” she asked, then whispered in my ear, "It’s against the law…”

I was comfortable with her enough at that point to chuckle. “Oh, don’t you mean stealing?” I asked.

“Isn’t that the same thing?” Ditzy asked with a confused look. I do admit that those words can be confusing, considering that thieves often say ‘Barrow’, so that mistake was understandable.

“No, not really.” I explained. “Stealing is the act of taking something that does not belong to you without permission, and borrowing is the act of asking permission to use something that belongs to somepony else, and returning it when your done using the said-item before a due-date.” Ditzy continued to look puzzled. I sighed. “Stealing is wrong, borrowing is fine.” I simplified.

“Ohhh…” Ditzy finally understood, and looked behind me with her one shocked eye like I told her the secret of life. “That’s… deep…”

“Um… thank you…?” I said. “... anyway, what book do you want to borrow?” I asked. I turned and levitated a few books. “One I would personally suggest is ‘Slumber 101: Everything You Need to Know About Slumber Parties and Are Too Afraid to Ask’. It’s my own personally-made copy! Oh, I know! How about ‘Star Swirl the Bearded’? It’s a nonfiction novel. Oh, how about this cookbook? It has muffins. I know how you li-” before I could even finish my sentence, I suddenly heard a whole shelf of my books fall. ‘How can any of the shelves fall?’ I thought, for all the shelves are a part of the crystal-walls. I looked behind me and saw that all my books fell from one shelf, all over the floor in piles while the shelf remained in it's place, while Ditzy Doo flew in the air with an embarrassed look.

“Sorry, your honor. I just don’t know what went wrong…” she apologized. I hadn’t mention how clumsy she was. That is where her names ‘Ditzy Doo’ and ‘Derpy Hooves’ comes from. But this… I just have no idea how that could happen so swiftly, and not to mention how that was done by accident! I stood there agape, my mind questioned everything about that just happened. “Ah… sir, why is your mouth open…? Are you hungry…?” Ditzy asked with a puzzled look. I shook my head.

“Ah, no. No I’m not. Anyway, which book would you-”

“- The one you just mentioned.” Ditzy interrupted.

“...Ah… the cookbook?”

“No, the first one!”

“‘Slumber 101’?”

“No, the one after that!”

“The Starswirl novel?”

“Yes, that!”

“Well, um… okay. Now that I think about it, I like that book. I think I’ll read it again as soon as you're done, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Here you go. Enjoy!”

“Yes sir!”

I paced around the center of my castle while I felt extremely anxious.

        “What’s wrong, Twi'?” asked one of my five best friends, Applejack, an earthpony, whom was just about to exit the door after our meeting, or ‘Hang out’ Spike and Rainbow Dash calls it. (Another best friend of mine)

“Oh… nothing, nothing… everything is justswell.” I answered, my voice filled with stress. Which made Applejack think otherwise.

“Sugarcube, ah' think there’s somethin’ wrong.” She stated. “Jus’ tell me, hon'. What’s wrong?” she asked with her assuring, honest voice.

“Well… it’s been six weeks…”

“'Since what?”

“Since Ditzy Doo decided to borrow my Starswirl nonfiction novel.”

“Oof! That’s a problem. She’s always fer’getin’ stuff. ‘Reason why she was fired at the mail office months ago, and ya’ shouldn’t even get me started on how she was fired from the package delivery thing...”

        “Well, you don’t have to. I think I might be able to guess why…” I told her, remembering the time when a anvil, a piano, and other sorts of items that dropped on my head years ago before I became an Alicorn. I still wonder to this day how I survived that.

        “Look, sugar-cube; she aint' gonna’ return it anytime soon. Ah’ think you should go ta’ Ditzy’s house n’ ask fer’ it back.”

        “Maybe she’s been wearing it on her head or using it as an eye patch or something, that feather-brain!” came Rainbow Dashe's voice in the distance.

        “Rainbow!” Applejack spat.

        “What? It’s true!” Applejack and I heard Rainbow call back.

        “Look, I’ll just head over and get my book back,” I told her, then added with a low voice, “And you can smack Rainbow Dash in the head for me. (if you can reach her while she’s in the air, that is)”

        “'With pleasure!” Applejack replied with a smirk.

        “I heard that!” Rainbow yelled.

        “Ready or not, here I come!” Applejack called back, then went after her.

I knocked on the door, then it suddenly opened. It was obviously unlocked, it wasn't even completely closed. I decided to let myself in since I couldn’t afford to wait another minute to get my book back.

        “Hello? Ditzy, are you home?” I asked. She sat in the middle of her rug in her living room and looked in my direction while she wore a gasmask.

“Are you my mummy?” she asked while reached out her hooves to find me, barely able to see through the mask’s dusty lenses. She pulled it off to get a clear look at me. “Oh, you're not my mummy,” she noted. “You sound like her, though. Do you want a muffin?”

        “Um, no. I’m good. No thank you.” I answered.

        “I’ll take that as a ‘Yes’. Muffins it is!” Ditzy replied with a smile. I wanted to make it clear that I didn’t want one, but before I did, she dashed her way to her kitchen and brought back some freshly, baked muffins. “They’re ready, just in time!”

        “Um… thanks.” I said an awkward smile, then levitated a muffin. She sat down right where she stood, with the muffin liner on the ground next to her. “Um… do you think we should maybe get some plates first?” I asked.

“What’s a 'plate'?” Ditzy wondered with a puzzled look.

“Nothing, nothing. Never mind…” I told her, then decided to play along and sat down, with my muffin as well. “So, um… I recall you borrowed one of my books,” I said to proceed straight to the point. Ditzy gave me a puzzled look. “... you. Have. One. Of. My. Books.” I said insultingly, yet slowly and clearly. I got impatient at that point. But lucky for me, Ditzy didn’t seem to be offended by that.

        “You mean those paper-things?” she asked.

        “Yes, the thing with the paper with words on it!” I answered.

        “Oh, I’ll get it!” she said, then headed to her living-room. She returned with a pirate hat, and held it upside down. Before I asked, she dropped it on the ground with a thud, and pulled out my Starswirl the bearded book. She slipped on the said hat and gave me a salute. “Ahoy, matie!”

        “Ahoy!” I replied with a wave and smile. I picked up the book with my levitation spell, next to my muffin that only had three bites. Surprisingly, the whole muffin liner was already completely empty. “Um… it was nice… I’ll… see you later?” I awkwardly said, before I started to leave.

“Sure,” Ditzy replied as I headed my way to the door. “And, Twilight?” she suddenly asked before I left the door. I stopped. “Thanks for the book… I liked it. I especially liked the part where the book said, ‘Starswirl had to keep a protection spell on his precious scrolls so no unicorn could steal them and claim they invented the spells, the pirates they were.’ I like pirates. And I cried when Starswirl lost his ‘Mummy’ in that horrible smoke from the sleepy dragon when he was only a foal. That was sad. His mummy use to bake him something before he even asked. Well, you know, with what little food they had during that time.”

I felt shocked at how much she actually knew and read. I then decided to stay, and shared a few of my thoughts with her. And soon after, we had some long conversations, and even started a minor book club between us. Ditzy Doo may not be in the right mind at times, but when it comes to literature; she seems to fully grasp things and understand it all, even if it uses big words she doesn't know the meaning of, like understanding an opera even know they sing in a foreign language.

After that fateful day, I learned to never judge a pony at first sight, that no matter how odd they seem; they will always deserve the best of respect and friendship.

The End