In the Time Before

Seventy two hours had passed from the time that Twinkle and Alicorn entered the forest to the time they exited. In that short period of time, Twinkle had become adept at casting magic.

The two ponies looked over the large plain in which the town lay. The luscious green fields ran all the way up to the first building. Twinkle started down the path.

“Are you coming?” she said playfully.

“Of course.” He started trotting toward her and the two ponies continued side by side through the fields.

They were half way to the town when they came across a stream. The stream’s curve almost touched the road they walked on. Twinkle, seeing the opportunity, playfully pushed Alicorn down into the stream. He stumbled to the middle with a shocked expression, knee-deep in cold water. Twinkle looked down at him and laughed. She started to fall backwards in her laughter and, with a little twitch of green magic, Twinkle was turned around and fell into the stream. They both laughed until their sides hurt. When they regained their senses, they climbed out of the stream. They were soaking wet and giggling as they continued down the path.

By the time they got to the town, they were only partially dry. The ponies were looking at Alicorn with the same looks that he received on the first day he came to the town. The only difference was, they continued doing their daily tasks and didn’t form a crowd. However, the two didn’t care. They both were glancing at each other with half wet fur and periodically giggling over their river adventure.

Twinkle looked up at a house and stopped, “Well this is it. My house…and my parents.” She said the last in a lower, more annoyed voice.

They both looked up and started toward the house’s entrance. Twinkle opened the door. “Mom, Dad I’m back.” She called.

“Welcome back sweetie.” A mare’s voice could be heard from another room.

“Good to be back.” Twinkle said under her breath in a highly irritated voice. Alicorn heard this but chose to say nothing.

The house’s walls were made entirely of wood. From the front door there was a large open room with an entrance to another room on the opposite side. A large circular shaped wool carpet was spread across the floor. On the right, there was a wooden ladder that lead to a hole in the ceiling.

Quillpaps came into view in the far doorway. “Your father is still out chopping…” Her voice trailed off when she saw the blue and green pony standing next to Twinkle. “Um hello. You’re the new pony from out of town that everyone is talking about aren’t you?”

“Yeah.” He said cheerfully.

Twinkle walked into the house. “Hey mom, is it ok for him to sleep here for a while? You know, since he doesn’t have any other house to stay at.”

“Why sure. I don’t see why not.”

Alicorn stepped into the large room.

“What’s your name?” Quilpaps asked.

“My name is Alicorn.” He said, shooting a glance at Twinkle.

“Well, Alicorn, dinner will be ready soon. Twinkle why don’t you get his bed ready…and dry off. Your both so…wet.”

“Will do.” She said.

Quilpaps trotted back into the room. Twinkle went to the wooden ladder. “Come on.” She said.

When he reached the top of the ladder, he could see the roof above him was slanted. The hallway ran the entire length of the house. There were four doors that opened off the hall.

Twinkle extended a hoof to help him the rest of the way up the ladder. When they were both up the ladder, she pointed to the first door on the left and said, “This is mom and dad’s room.” She turned to face the door on the right. “This is my room.” She then continued to the second door on the right. “This will be your room.” She opened the door. “Well, come on in.”

Alicorn trotted into the room. From the door, the roof sloped down until it touched the floor at the other end. Next to the door, he saw a bed of wool laying on the ground.

“The sheep are always happy to give us their wool when they come to town once a week in exchange for some food. If you were wondering about the bed.” The last was said quickly. “You can use the wool over there to dry off.” She pointed to a towel that lay on the ground next to the bed. “If you need anything…” She stammered, “…j…just come and get me ok?”

Alicorn looked at her, “O…Okay.” Twinkle left the room and closed the door.

When she left, he realized this was the first time in 72 hours he had been alone. He looked over at the towel, trotted to it and picked it up with his magic. He dried off while he thought to himself. He could hear Twinkle in the room next to him. Wood wasn’t exactly the most sound proof material. He could hear the soft sound of Twinkles’ horn while, he assumed, she easily lifted the towel to dry herself. She was such a fast learner. Twinkle had said unicorns in the town just barely used magic when they needed to and even then they were pretty abysmal efforts. In the last 72 hours, however, Twinkle went from barely lifting a rock to doing highly advanced spells that even he was finding difficult to master.

He finished drying off his fur and placed the towel neatly back where he found it. He stepped on top of his bed, sat down and looked around. The room was brown. It was much different from living in the forest with the open air, luscious green leaves and canopies that protected him. This felt more like he was living inside a large tree with a perfect 45 degree angled roof. He missed the high green canopies and fresh air of his forest. He decided to try to master a spell he had been working on while he had some free time. He cleared his mind and focused on time. A green light enveloped his mind and the room disappeared around him.

“Something is coming.” He heard the voice of the Tree in his mind.

White light filled his vision. The black silhouette of a griffon materialized before him. Then the blinding white light was sucked away. Suddenly he was looking at himself standing between the Tree and a horde of heavily armored griffons. In the next instant, everything went black as his mind became overwhelmed and he lost concentration. He woke up in his room and tried to shake off the lingering dizziness and understand the meaning of the vision.

Meanwhile, Chop had just left the forest carrying part of a tree trunk on his back. The other half was being carried by one of his co-workers. He carried the tree up to the construction site of a new house. They had not started building the house yet. He and his partner carefully placed the log down beside several others that looked just like it.

“Phew…I am beat.” Said Chop running a hoof across his brow. “I’m going home. See you around.”

“Alright but next time make sure you aren’t late.” His co-worker said.

“Ha, Ha. Yeah. Will do.” He said guiltily. Chop walked towards home. When he came to the entrance of his house, Quilpaps opened the door and came to greet him. She closed the door behind her.

“What’s going on?” Chop asked her. “You almost never come to greet me like this.”

Quilpaps responded, “We have a visitor that is going to be staying with us for a couple nights. I just didn’t want him to hear me explaining everything to you. It would be awkward and you know how sound proof this house is.” She said sarcastically.

Chop knew just how much sound can carry in his house. He had to spend numerous sleepless nights listening to Twinkle cry and carry on about being shunned. “Yeah…” He sighed, “Yeah I know how it is.”

Quilpaps continued, “You know that new pony? The one who came several hours ago?”

“Yeah. Is he staying with us?” He asked hopefully.

“Yes. Twinkle brought him over and asked if he could stay with us. Of course I said yes. Can’t leave a pony on the street you know.”

“And we get to be the first ponies to know the new pony.” He said with some glee.

“Yeah we do.” Quilpaps said with satisfaction. They both went into the house. Quilpaps snuck back into the kitchen and Chop said, “Hey, I’m home.” In a rather loud voice.

Twinkle sighed in her room. Quilpaps came to meet him like she hadn’t seen him in hours. She told him that dinner would be ready soon. Quilpaps went back into the kitchen and Chop went to his room pretending he didn’t know about Alicorn.

Dinner rolled around and Alicorn got to see what was past the main entrance room. The dining room and kitchen was all one room. It was the same width as the first room but not as long. To his left, cabinets lined the wall filled with food and household items while the adjacent wall held a stone fireplace. A fire danced in the hearth and the scent of wood smoke hung in the air. Next to the fireplace sat a barrel filled with water. To the right of him there was a small wooden table with four chairs, each facing one side of the table.

They went to sit at the table. Twinkle purposely sat on the right side of Alicorn. Chop sat to his left. In front of every chair, there was a bowl with a spoon next to it. Quilpaps came over and placed a big bowl at the center of the table. She grabbed a large wooden spoon and dished out daisy stew to the four bowls on the table. Then she sat down.

Alicorn was completely lost on what to do at the table. Twinkle put her head down but kept her eyes on Alicorn as if to say “do what I do.” Twinkle lifted her spoon and picked up some of the stew in her spoon. Alicorn was watching Twinkle intently out of the corner of his eyes. She then lifted her spoon to her mouth and drank the contents. Alicorn looked down and drank the stew as he had seen Twinkle do. The other two ponies were digging in to their meal a little faster than Twinkle and Alicorn had.

Chop placed his spoon down in his bowl and asked the first question. “What’s your name?”

Alicorn looked up and responded. “My name is Alicorn.” Twinkle felt a surge of pride at having created his name.

“Well, Alicorn…” Chop continued, “What do you plan on doing in our fine town?”

Alicorn thought for a moment. He noticed that Twinkle was also waiting for his answer. “I plan on staying but I don’t know yet what I will do. I am sure I will figure it out in due time.”

Twinkle focused back on her stew.

“Well…” Chop said, “There are plenty of jobs here in our town. We could always use more ponies for all kinds of things.”

Quilpaps came into the conversation. “We are having a meeting at town hall in 18 hours. If you attend, you may find a job you might like. Would you like to come?”

“Ok…” Alicorn responded. He glanced at Twinkle and she gave no objections. “Sure I’ll come.”

“That’s great.” Quilpaps said.

“Can anypony go to the meetings?” Alicorn asked quickly looking over at Twinkle and back at Quilpaps.

“Why, yes anypony can join.” Quilpaps said happily as if proud of this fact.

Chop asked Alicorn, “So how are you liking the town so far?”

Alicorn changed glances from Quilpaps to Chop. “It’s very nice. I like it a lot.” He said with enthusiasm. “However, I have one question.”

“Yes?” Quilpaps asked.

“Why do you have four rooms and chairs when you don’t use them?”

Quilpaps answered, “Well you see, each house is made the same way. Every single house looks the same as every other. We don’t have the materials to build to order. So some families have too many rooms and some have too few. It is just how we live in this town.”

“Oh, I see.” Alicorn said satisfied with the answer.

After that, not much was said to Alicorn. The rest of dinner was mostly small talk between Chop and Quilpaps. Twinkle said nothing. When every pony was finished, they placed their dishes on one of the counters and left the room. Chop and Quilpaps sat in the large entrance room and continued their conversation. Alicorn, not really knowing what to do, was going to sit with them. However, Twinkle guided him to the door.

Twinkle said, “Hey mom, we’re going out for a little bit.”

Quilpaps responded, “Alright. See you later. If you come in when we are asleep, try not to wake us.”

“Ok mom.” The two ponies left the house and went onto the road.

They trotted down the road not saying anything. Suddenly, there was a large bolt of lightning that crashed in the forest. At the same time the bolt struck the ground, Twinkle felt something resonate deep within her. When the thunder hit them, they jumped. Twinkle looked for the cloud the bolt originated from but she couldn’t find one. The sky was, in fact, completely clear.

Twinkle asked, “What was that?”

“Well uh…” Alicorn didn’t want to lie to Twinkle so he felt like he had no other choice. He sighed, “That was a magical discharge.”

“A what?” she was confused at the answer.

Alicorn explained, “We live in a constant state of twilight. All magical creatures exude excess magic into the air and the twilight absorbs this magic. When enough of this excess magic builds up, it’s discharged in a bolt of pure magic. You felt the magical disturbance, didn’t you?”

“Yes…that must have been what I felt. Where did you learn all this?” Twinkle asked him, astonished at what he knew.

“I learned it all from the Tree.”

Twinkle rolled her eyes. “Of course it was the Tree. Let’s get moving.”

“Where are we going?”

“I don’t know. Just anywhere I guess.” Twinkle looked down the road.

Alicorn asked, “Are you mad at your parents?”

Twinkle looked at him, shocked at his question. “Of course I am mad at them. You saw the way they treated you, and me for that matter, back at the market.”

“Yeah right.” He said like he had done something wrong. He put his head down.

Twinkle, seeing the pony next to her lower his head, proceeded to comfort him. “I didn’t mean you did anything wrong. You were just fine. I like you, I don’t like my pare…” Her voice trailed off when she realized what she said.

Alicorn’s head lifted up and met her embarrassed gaze.

“No, no, I, I…I…” She stammered.

Alicorn quickly cut in. “I…like you to.” Both of them were blushing but they were smiling at each other. They continued walking down the road leaning on each other, their hooves barely touching the ground.

Alicorn woke up in his room. He and Twinkle had returned to Twinkle’s house and separated to their own rooms. He got out of his bed and opened his door. He noticed that the door to Twinkle’s parents room was closed and Twinkle’s door was open. He trotted over and peered into her room. It was empty. However, her room looked just like his. There were no distinguishing features that made the room hers. He went down the ladder and was drawn toward the kitchen by mouthwatering aromas and the sound of whistling. He peered through the doorway and saw Twinkle making something in the kitchen.

Hearing the creaking of wood, Twinkle quickly spun around in surprise and saw him standing there. “I…I just thought…I wanted to make you breakfast.”

Alicorn was touched by her thoughtfulness. “Here, let me help you.”

“Uh…sure.”

He came and stood next to Twinkle. Neither looked at the other as they started preparing the food.

“What…are you making?” He asked.

“Oh…uh…Just some eggs…and uh some oats. Nothing special.” She said the last part with a bit of a chuckle.

Alicorn thought for a moment and said shyly, “A…Anything is special with you.”

Twinkle ducked her head and smiled. Coming from any other pony that would have sounded ridiculously corny. However, because Alicorn had been alone his whole life, he had no idea what corny was. He was simply honest with his feelings.

After breakfast, they left the house as fast as possible so they didn’t wake the other two ponies in the house. They ended up at the construction site where Chop delivered wood the other day.

“Don’t you think I should practice my magic?” Twinkle asked

“Sure, why not.” Alicorn said in response.

Twinkle stepped forward and her horn started to glow silver. All the logs in the area that had been set out for construction started to glow silver as well. With great effort, Twinkle lifted the logs into the air and started building the house. She mounded up dirt to form a foundation. Then she stacked the wood on the ground. Some ponies from the nearby homes noticed the giant logs levitating in the air and came out to see what was going on. Soon a crowd formed around Twinkle and Alicorn. They watched Twinkle as she placed each log perfectly onto the ground where the other logs stood waiting for it. Pretty soon the entire first floor was completed. “Just a little more.” Said Alicorn to Twinkle who was reaching exhaustion. In one final push, she took the remaining logs and placed them down to form the roof of the house she had just built. When she finally finished, she was panting and sweating. She looked up at Alicorn who was by her side.

“That was excellent” He said, beaming at her.

They were so wrapped up in each other, they didn’t even notice the crowd that had gathered. A loud cheer erupted, startling the two ponies

One of the ponies in the crowd asked, in wonder and amazement. “How did you do that?”

Twinkle said, “I just used my magic to lift the logs and place them down.”

“Wow…” The Earth pony said, “I wish I could have magic like that. That’s amazing!”

The crowd cheered again for Twinkle and she ducked her head in embarrassed pleasure.

One of the ponies came forward and said, “Alright. Alright. Every pony settle down.” He tried to calm the crowd. “Alright, now we don’t want to be late for our weekly meetings. Every pony, let’s go gather at the town hall.”

The crowd started moving toward the center of town but there were two ponies who stayed behind. Chop and Quilpaps stood watching Twinkle in shock. Chop had his mouth wide open like he was trying to catch flies in it. Quilpaps had more control over her emotions and just stood staring.

Quilpaps spoke first with astonishment, “I…I had no idea…you…magic could do such a thing like this.”

Chop just continued to stand there with his mouth open. He himself had seen it take weeks to build one house and that was in ideal conditions. Most of the time, it took months. To see a house be built in a matter of minutes baffled him.

Quilpaps, seeing Chop’s expression, decided to leave before things got awkward. “Well…” Quilpaps said, “We best be off. I need to get to my job before I am late.” She pushed the unmoving stone beside her that she called her husband.

Only when they were out of sight did either Twinkle or Alicorn speak. “You did a fantastic job back there Twinkle!” Alicorn said to her.

She blushed. “Oh…come on now, not you too.” She said, secretly pleased at his praise. “Let’s get going. The town is probably waiting for us.” The two ponies trotted towards the center of town.

Alicorn moved through the double doors of the town hall. The hall was one big room with a small raised platform against the far wall. It was packed full with ponies but Alicorn managed to stay right by Twinkle’s side. Alicorn could see Quilpaps taking a position to the right of the center of the platform. She had a small podium to write on and chair to sit in. She had a quill, some paper and was ready to record the meeting. A pony from the crowd came and stood in the center of the platform. She was a white pony with a yellow mane. Alicorn couldn’t quite see her Cutie Mark from this distance.

She spoke with a firm voice to the audience. “We all know the rules, so let’s get this done quickly.” She quickly ran through the rules of the meeting and Quilpaps started writing. “Now, let us begin.” Quilpaps finished writing and handed a piece of paper to the white mare. “This week we have produced enough food to feed the town twice over.” Everyone cheered at this fact. “However, the water level in the stream has dropped by 3 inches. I urge every pony to start taking more care with their water usage.” The room fell silent. “This last week we have finished making a house.”

She was cut off by some pony in the crowd, “Make that two. I saw Twinkle make a house right before this meeting.”

The pony on the platform scoffed, “There is no way any pony could have made a house right before this meeting. That’s impossible.”

The same pony from the crowd responded, “All who saw Twinkle make a house, raise their hoof.” Almost everyone in the room raised their hooves.

“Very well.” The pony on the platform said, accepting defeat. “We made two houses this week. We have had a visitor from out of town. And, finally, our trade Pegasi have gained us a number of much needed fabrics and exotic goods. Now, on to matters of what we are going to do for next week? I will leave that for anypony who is willing.” The white pony left the platform and went into the crowd.

Chop came to the stage with a number of other Earth ponies. These ponies were the building and wood collecting ponies of the town.

One of the Earth ponies that went up with Chop spoke, “Now we are planning to build another house. We don’t know where yet but we will inform you next week. Next, which ponies should get the houses that just went up?”

Chop spoke up. “Perhaps Twinkle should get one of the houses.” Twinkle couldn’t tell if her father was trying to better her life by suggesting giving her a home or if he was just trying to get her out of his mane.

A voice spoke from the audience, “Why does she get to have a house and not my child.” Chop stuttered for a second.

Another voice spoke from the audience. “Twinkle made one of the houses so she should get the one that she built.” All the ponies on the stage nodded in agreement, mostly because they didn’t know if she built it correctly and didn’t want to be responsible if the house collapsed.

The white mare from before moved onto the platform and spoke. “All in favor of giving Twinkle the house she built, raise your hooves.” More than half the crowd raised their hooves.

“Very well. Twinkle will get the house she built.”

Alicorn saw Twinkle’s face beam at the town’s decision. The white mare left the stage. “Now.” The pony on the center stage spoke. “Who will get the other house?”

The meeting went on for three hours. When the meeting ended, the crowd of ponies left the hall. Chop waited until Quilpaps finished her job before the two trotted out together. Twinkle happily trotted toward her new house to inspect it for herself. Even though she’d made it, she couldn’t wait to see it again. Alicorn, of course, was by her side. He shared in her excitement as they trotted into Twinkle’s new house. She stared at the empty rooms that looked just like her old home but it was hers and no pony else’s.

She turned around, stepped outside and spoke to him. “I am going to get my things from my parents’ house.” She started trotting then stopped. “You…will you change houses? I mean, I am happy to house you now that I have my own home. What I mean is, you don’t have to stay with my parents if you don’t want to.” Twinkle said, her face flushing.

Alicorn spoke, “Yes…yes I would be happy to take you up on that offer.”

Twinkle’s face erupted in a smile. She thrust herself forward in a hug and almost knocked him over in her enthusiasm. “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!” Twinkle then went to her parents’ house at a full gallop, leaving a stunned Alicorn behind.