Author's Note
Thanks to Yellowbuzz, Gear Tight, Infernus and Nudelsuppe for proofreading my english grammar.
Additional thanks to Ashidaru for his drawing of Terri, Habijob for her interpretation of the Strange relic stone and to PonyHD for his drawing of Terris shop! 
The strange Salespony
The Strange Salespony
By TerribilisScriptor
The strange Salespony is a character, most peculiar and mostly unnoticed by the populus of Equestria. Only a few of those who see him, remember him and await his visit, for he only appears in sporadic intervals. Winters may go by between visits of the Salespony and his wagon, filled to the brim with books. But once he arrives and sets up his store, the most unusual, rare or even unknown books can be bought from him. Most ponys who do remember him do not entirely agree on his age. Some have talked of an elderly unicorn stallion, whilst others remember him as a young fellow with a smile as wide as a mile. The things the few who await his visits do agree on are the color of his mane and coat. His coat is the dark green of a pine tree and his mane is as black as the ink his books and scrolls are written in. One of those few who noticed and remembered his visit was a young unicorn mare by the name of Twilight Sparkle, who was living in a town called Ponyille.
And this is her story of the strange Salespony.
As the sun rose high on a new day in Equestria, Twilight and Spike the dragon were already up and busy with her preperations for the upcoming Running of the Leaves event in the small town.
“Found it!”,
declared spike as he emerged from a pile of paper that was laying in a heep on the floor of the liberary they lived in, as he held the last quill they had in his small claw.
“Finally! Now we can continue checking my checklists!”
Twilight exclaimed in a voice much like the one of a foal on it’s birthday, as she began to recite the checklist by memory.
“Celebratory music after the last leaves are cleared?”
“Check!”
“ Organizing the finish line at the end?”
“Check!”
“Renting the overseer hotair-balloon?”
“Check!”
Twilight paused for a second and realized that that was everything on the list. But something still felt amiss.
“What’cha thinking about?”
Spike asked.
“I think we forgot something related to checking checklists… but what?”
“Maybe buying more quills… remember this is our last one.”
“Oh right! I really need to rest tonight if I forget such obvious things.”
Spike grinned in reply to Twilight’s realization, not because he thought it to be funny, but at the thought of sleep he just had to grin. He had been up for two days to help her with her preperations, and he wasn’t thinking of leaving her alone with the remainder until it all was done.
“Do you wanna come with me, Spike?”
The words of the purple mare pulled Spike away from his absent grin and the thought of rest. He spun around to see Twilight already at the door. He nodded and followed her outside.
This very morning the sun did not only light up Twilight’s library, but also a small day-to-day wagon, standing just outside Ponyville between some trees that were devoid of leaves already. It was neat but also a bit crooked; something on it seemed not all dandy to the eye but one couldn’t point a hoof at what it was that made this wagon strange. It was made of wood and some shiny metal braces and screws that reflected the early light of this first fall day.
Some squirrels that had just ended the preperations for hibernation came down from a tree, to take a closer look at the thing they didn’t know. One of them, with a curious sparkle in its eyes, came closer to a wheel of the contraption but jumped back as the insides of the wagon began to emit rumbeling sounds. Something was stirring inside the wagon.
A few minutes of sounds from the inside later, the back hatch of the wagon flung open and a grey eyed stallion with green fur and a black mane came forth, taking a deep breath of the fresh morning air. The stallion started stretching his limbs, one by one. After this he began setting up his wagon. He opened the wide shopcounter up and erected the wooden sign atop it’s roof. The sign displayed a book, coins and a scroll to proclaim that this vehicle was a faring bookshop. After this procedure the stallion went inside to get his supplies out and get some breakfast cooking. He did not notice an orange mare trotting a bit off the path that was looking his way whilst pulling a cart of apples behind her.
Twilight left the shop with Spike who was carrying the paperbag with new writing supplies in it. They where about to head for a snack at Sugarcube Corner, the local bakery as Applejack came closer from the townsquare.
“Howdy folks!”
Said the orange mare in an uplifted tone. Twilight smiled and replied:
“Hi Applejack, how are you?”
“I'm alright, got some good ol’ apples for the ponys that are gonna lose against me in the race, to munch on.”
She answerd while nodding towards her cart. After a brief pause the farmer mare continued her dialogue with Twilight just before she made her way toward the town hall again.
“Oh and Twilight! I almost forgot! Not far outside of town, towards Sweet Apple Acres there seems to be some bookmerchant that set up shop this morning. Thought that you might wanna go there.”
The unicorns eyes lit up as she heard these words and she briefly went through all of her daily chores in her mind and did some quick maths. She realized that if she hurried she might be able to visit the merchant before meeting up with Mayor Mare around noon.
“Thanks for the information Applejack!”
“Ay, no problem.”
After his breakfast the green stranger packed up his cooking equipment and crammed it back in his wagon. After this he placed himself behind the counter of his shop with a book in his hooves. It was THEORETICAL MAGICAL SYMMETRY, an old masterpiece that smelled of history and old ink. The stallion loved this smell, his wagon was filled with it and he liked it. His wagon was his home and shop in one, as he never stayed in a place for long. He had multiple reasons to keep moving about, some of them stranger than others.
He read in the book until a female voice was heard.
“Hello!”
As he looked up from the old pages he saw a purple unicorn standing on the other side of the counter. She was a bit younger than him and had wide eyes as she saw the heeps of books and scrolls behind him.
“Hi there Miss Twilight.”
As the stranger spoke her name she was initially confused and asked herself if they had met before, but her memory was devoid of any memory of the young stallion in her past.
“Uhm…. How do you know my name? Have we met before? If that is so I am terribly sorry if I have forgotten you!”
“Don’t worry Miss Twilight, most ponys don’t remember me, probably because I tend to pop up so rarely.”
Twilight was still trying to remember him but she only remembered one similar shop from her past. She was a foal back then and there was a merchant that came to Canterlot and sold scrolls and books. But she was perfectly sure that this wasn’t him, the stallion from back then was old, very old, nearly ancient. The colt in front of her was far too young to be him. Perhaps he knew her from magic kindergarden? Yeah, that must be it! He was a unicorn as well and only a bit older than her. She decided that this was the most likely explanation. So she continued the conversation in a friendly and polite manner.
“Do we know each other from magic kindergarden?”
The green unicorn had a pondering look on his face for a moment that was followed by a grin.
“Yeah, something along those lines.”
“Ah okay, then could you reintroduce yourself, maybe?”
“Of course! How rude of me, just call me Terri.”
“Terri? That’s an exotic name for… a stallion.”
“I get to hear that a lot, but I don’t mind.”
Spike wandered around the wagon in boredom, for the strange salespony did not have any comics for him to go through. Instead he had a lot of ancient and valuable looking books and scrolls, but Spike never really cared to read them like Twilight did. Instead he eyed the stranger’s cart, it seemed somehow off but he couldn’t really tell why. After some closer inspection he found some strange marks on the lowest boards that made up the base-part of the wagon’s walls. They where so old and worn off that they where nearly invisible. He didn’t recognize them, as he had never seen them anywhere in his time living with Twilight and helping with her studying. He thought about telling her about these markings but decided that it would be rude to interrupt the two unicorns’ conversation; and he also he didn’t want to tell her in front of the salespony. He reckoned that taking a few steps backwards would prove to be a good idea.
“So how long are you going to stay here in Ponyville?”
Twilight asked as she inspected the old scrolls she had layed her eyes on. She was basically glowing with excitement about the value and rarity of Terri’s books and scrolls. Some of them were but mere whispers in Canterlot’s oldest libraries as myths. Some of the magic and research or legends in the books where unknown too her. She also found things written down in fresh ink on new paper. It was a bookworms paradise.
“A few days only, I will probably leave in three days. I have some... business to attend to.”
Terri’s eyes stared into nothingness for a moment but quickly zoomed back too reality as the purple pony in front of him spoke again.
“How sad, I think I could spend days looking at your stuff. Where did you get some of these? I never heard of THE EXTRAORDINARY LIVE OF LONGJEB or the ALMANACH OF CHAOTIC SYMMETRY and I thought there was only one copy of starswirls BASIC INSTRUCTIONS ON PORTAL MAGIC!”
The green stallion smiled at her ecstatic joy over the books he offered.
“Let’s say I have my ways of getting a hoof on these things.”
“I must say I am amazed that….”
Suddenly Twilight’s eyes widened as she took a closer look at a book she just picked up. The title read DRAGONS: HATCHING AND ENERGY FLUX. She knew this book. Hastily she opened it and skipped all the way to page 48, the page after this was missing. She skipped all the way to the end to find the last few pages waved by waterdamage. The realization stunned her mentally and physically for a minute. She remembered this very book. The very same one with a missing page and waterdamage was given to her by the ancient stallion from her foalhood. She used it to study for her entry exam back in magic kindergarden. She was absolutely sure of it and couldn’t make sense of what she just found.
“Is everything okay Twilight?”
She shook herself awake from her stupor as Spike called her. The little dragon stood by her side and poked her in the side to be noticed.
“N-nothing, I just thought I saw something.”
She gave the merchant pony a quick look and suddenly felt as if something was amiss. She didn’t want to bring up the book she just found, so she just grabbed some scrolls and hastily bought them. She didn’t even check what scrolls she took. finding this particular book only boosted her feeling of lingering unease. She made a quick excuse to get away from the wagon.
“Well would you look at the time! it’s going to be noon soon, we better leave for our appointment with the mayor!”
This wasn’t even a lie, and she intended to get to this appointment as quickly as possible.
As the purple mare trotted off, Terri noticed her glancing back at his shop from time to time until she disappeared behind a slope. He stood up from his seat behind the counter and climbed out of his wagon. He lifted the last book she held with his magic. He knew why she was this surprised too see it. He chuckeled as he thought of his strange fate and how distraught Miss Twilight had been as she found a puzzle piece to this very fate of his. He put the book down and returned back to reading behind the counter of his shop, waiting for customers.
In the evening, after the race and after all the leaves had left the treetops, Twilight’s mind returned to the incident that had occured this morning. She lay in bed, eyes wide open as she inspected her copy of DRAGONS: HATCHING AND ENERGY FLUX. It was the exact same book, but a bit worn from the years of use and storage. But it still remained the very same book, with page 49 missing and the last pages damaged by water. She pondered a long time bout how this could have happened. She considered time travel as an explanation, but it would probably be hard and dangerous for even the most experienced wizards. With all these books and scrolls in his wagon, she reckoned that Terri might be a wizard of such skill, but even time travel couldn’t explain how an old Terri could have sold her this book when she was just a foal. To top it all off, all of this required a time travelling spell to exist and she had never heard of such a spell in her life. Things just didn’t add up properly. This drove the unicorn mare mad as she plunged into the backwoods of her mind to unravel this mistery. But after a few hours of pondering she fell into a deep slumber until next mornings sunrise.
Terri rose from his sleep, well rested and ready for another day of reading and waiting for customers. He left his wagon to prepare his breakfast like every morning, 3 eggs and roasted bread with some salt on it, he couldn’t stand sweet food this early. As he waited for the pan to heat up he heard somepony talking to someone in the distance. It seemed to emit from behind the slope towards the town and was muffeled by the distance between the talkers and him.
“Customers? This early? My word, who goes shopping for scrolls at such an early hour?”
He murmured to himself as he heard the voices coming closer.
Spike walked along side Twilight as they ascended on the slope towards Terri’s mobile shop.
“So why are we going back to the strange bookmerchant and his cart with odd writing on it?”
“Well Spike I wanted to apologize to him for leaving so hastily and for behaving the way I did when I found this book in his store.”
the purple mare opened her saddlebag to reveal an old book Spike recognized from reorganizing the library with her. It was DRAGONS: HATCHING AND ENERGY FLUX.
“What’s so special about it? It’s just a book we also have in the library, what’s the deal with a book existing twice?”
“The deal isn’t the existence of two or more copies of a book, but the existence of two exactly identical books. There are multiple things about this guy and his store that feel funny to me. And only one of them is the fact that he possessed a book that shouldn’t exist like this.”
“So something is weird about this pony!”
Spike exclaimed as if somepony just showed him something he had misplaced.
“Exactly, it is something looks can’t tell and that’s the reason we are going back. I want to know what’s up with Terri and his books.”
Bread hit the pan and started to fizzle alongside the eggs over the gas heater as Terri saw the now silent visitors stepping into view. It was Twilight and her dragon friend. As he saw them he gestured for them to come over.
“Good morning Miss Twilight and also a good morning to you my scaly friend! Come on over!”
The increased their speed until they reached him and sat down on the other side of the pan.
“Hello Terri”
Twilight said as she sat upright with both hooves on the ground before her.
“So what brings you two here, this early on this nice day?”
Twilight replied in a tone that matched her expression of a night with little sleep.
“I for one have come to say sorry for yesterday. We left so quickly and we were probably very rude by being weirded out. Don’t be mad at us but some things about your shop made us nervous, but I can’t exactly tell you why.”
Terri looked her in the eyes with the most confused look on his face. The confusion shifted to a smile and then turned into a short bust of laughter. Twilight and Spike looked at each other in confusion, not sure how to react. As Terri got his laughter under control he began speaking again.
“Oh Sisters I haven’t laughed like that in a while! You two are the best. I never had a pony over that was sorry about their reaction to my shop. I get these kinds of reactions all the time! I’m used to it and don’t mind it. But thanks for the excuse anyway, you probably made an old stallion’s day.”
The words old stallion out of the mouth of a young guy like Terri made Twilight shake off her mindset of surprise and reminded her of some other things she still wanted to know.
“Speaking of an old stallion, I still have some questions for you, Terri.”
She said inquisitively as she opened her saddlebag and levitated the book she brought over to the, now eating, green unicorn. His eyes rose from his plate and he swallowed to be able to talk again.
“So you brought the book, I see. Now I am curious, I remember you as being quiet a bookworm, so tell me Miss Twilight… what do you think are the answers to your questions?”
This response surprised her again, she felt reminded of discord’s way of talking to ponies.
“First off, there is the question how we posess the exact same book. Then there is also that distant memory of an old stallion selling me this copy of the book when I was a foal. In addition to that we have the question how you get all these unusual books and scrolls . The final mystery are these markings on your wagon Spike noticed yesterday.”
Terri had an amused look on his face and tilted his head slightly as he waited for Twilight’s theory to be heard.
“Now to be honest, all of these questions could be answered by a time travelling spell. But also that would not explain anything, because you seem to remember me and selling this book to me at an age you couldn’t have been. And finally there is no time travelling magic I have ever heard of, in Equestria!”
Terri, who just finished his meal, suddenly grinned and applauded.
“I must say Miss Twilight, you are even brighter than I remembered you. I kind of understand why the history books use such big words to describe you and your intellect.”
This very sentence changed her prior state of confusion to a perfect miasma of thought in her head.
“History books?”
She whispered under her breath.
“Exactly! You will know why if you wait a few more winters. But that is not what you wanted to know, right? You wanted to know how all of these things make any sense in our world of linear time.”
She nodded, not even realizing that this was not necessary at the moment.
“Let me start all the way at the beginning of my story.“
He said, changing his voice to a story-telling pitch.
“Back when I was a little colt in a far away land, I was into two things: sticking my muzzle into places that were probably somewhat unsafe or forbidden, and reading. I would spend days trotting about in the area where my village was. The lush forests and relics of a culture long gone made it the perfect playground for me. I fueled my lust for adventure by reading stories in the library of the town. After that I would often venture into parts of the forest that I didn’t know. Probably hoping to find a treasure or something like that.”
During the process of Terri telling his tale, Spike and Twilight leaned forward and were basically glued to his words.
“So one day while adventuring through the forest as an older foal, I was probably 16 or something along those lines, I stumbeled upon something. Something strange with a strong aura of … I can only describe it as chaos. It just emitted a feeling of, everything you can imagine. Fear, joy, bliss, sadness, love, hate and many more emotions. It was a monolithic stone, standing tall, in the forest, completely devoid of any overgrowth, with a perfect hole in the foliage above it. It was old with carvings in it that made no sense as a language or a picture. Somehow this stone pulled me, no, lured me closer. Being the adventurous colt I was I ran up to it, and laid a hoof on it.”
Here Terri paused for a second, as if trying to remember the details of the following event. During this brief pause Spike looked over to Twilight whose expression of tiredness had been wiped from her face like a pile of dust that was scattered by the wind. His gaze quickly returned to Terri as the green stallion continued his story.
“The instant I touched the, Celestia knows how old, rock I understood the carvings, my mind was flood by the words and an ancient magic I did not understand. The carvings on the rock morphed and twisted, forming words I could read. I basically inhaled the information and was flooded by this ancient spell. The carvings told of magic from the age of chaos, before the two sisters trapped discord, the incarnation of chaos in rock. Ever since that day I have never seen, heard of or read about any chaotic magic remaining in our world after Discord was banished.”
Terri paused again to remember something, telling this story brought back some old memorys. But regardless of any remnants of his other adventured he continued to tell the story of the stone.
“Finding out what this spell or curse did to me took only a few days, that was when I jumped through time and space for the very first time while I slept. Figuring out where that spell came from or how it was made is a mystery to me to this day. All I could find out about it are its rules and its name. The stone revealed it to my young mind the moment I touched it. Scrambled Fate. The conditions on the enchanted pony, where that he travelled through time and space every six days during sleep. The spell also does dictate the pony to materialize on solid ground. Furthermore the spell messes up the aging process and warps the age of said pony every time they make a jump through time. Material possessions may be warped, replicated or just vanish during a jump. And finally it allows the enchanted pony to take things with them, as long as they are related to their special talent, in my case that talent was writing and selling everything paper can hold.”
Terri took a deep breath and went for the finishing touch on his report.
“Ever since that day I have been tossed through the ages and made the best of it. It can be both a blessing and a curse. You see, making friends is difficult if you only happen to visit only once very few years, assuming you are even lucky enough to appear multiple times within their lifetime and close to where they live. But hey I can travel through time... lucky me, I guess.”
As he ended his story with these words Terri’s gaze wandered off into infinity again. He seemed sad even though the birds where chirping and the sun was overhead. Dwelling in memories of a life that had been so long and strange that even he couldn’t tell, how old he actually was. For all he knew he could be 21 or 110 years of age and he wouldn’t even notice, since his age flickered like an old lightbulb that couldn’t decide if it was broken or still bright.
“Oh… in that case, how about I introduce you to my friends. They might like you.”
Twilight said as she noticed Terri’s gaze and expression.
“Huh? Your…friends? But did you even listen to me? I just told you how hard friendships can be with this scrambled fate of mine. “
“I heard you perfectly well Terri but I’m afraid to tell you that a good friendship can even survive long dry stretches. You know I like you, now that I know why you and your wagon are so strange I am more comfortable with you being around. Being honest with other ponies is an important step to becoming friends with them. And like you told me already: ponys often leave early and consider your shop to be strange. So maybe being a bit less of the mysterious stranger you could comfort your customers by being more open. You might even meet some new ponys to talk to in a frienship-like manner.”
Terri's face lit up has he heard the words of the clever purple unicorn that would later be known as one of the most important ponys in history. He saw the modest smile on her face and felt understood, for the first time, in a long time. He realized the truth in her words and after a short pause finally spoke again.
“I think you are right. Thanks Miss Twilight for your kind words of advice.”
“Just call me Twilight, all my friends call me by that name.”
Terri's smile went wider than ever before in his strange life.
“uhm guys!”
The ponys turned towards Spike as he stared at Terri with a look of someone who was still not quite happy with what he knew.
“Now he answered every single question but he forgot one thing! The stuff I have found. The markings on his wagon. What are they about?!”
“Oh yeah! I completely forgot, they are just some protection spells in my native language, you know. Travelling through time can be also very dangerous.”
“Oh okay.”
Said spike and seemed satisfied with the answer. The little dragon leaned back to enjoy the bright sunlight of this wonderfull fall noon.
They sat and talked for a while, Terri, Spike and Twilight. they had a great time and after a while Terri came with them to meet Appeljack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. They all talked a lot and spent the remaining day and the day after as a group. Terri made a lot of friends that day and on his last evening in Ponyville he promised to visit again, if he happened to jump close to Ponyville in a few years.
The next morning came and as the squirrels climbed down their tree, every sign of the existence of a small wagon, just outside of town, was gone. As if there had never been a strange Salespony.
“Okay, I’m ready.”
Spike proclaimed as he held paper and quill at the ready, waiting for Twilight to dictate the lines.
“Dear Princess Celestia. Today I learned that even if somepony might seem strange or weird to you when you first meet them, you should not be rude to them or try to avoid them, but instead embrace them and find out why they may seem strange and what makes them the way they are. You may end up stumbeling into a new friend.
Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle.”
