Chapter 3

That night you had a very strange dream relating to the events of the evening before. You were walking down the street at night, seeing nopony around other than you, not even in the shops that you pass by. You then see the silhouette of a pony step out from a store, its appearance hidden in the shadows of a burned out street light. As the figure walks towards you, the form becomes more defined and the pony’s colors appear, revealing that this pony is Moon Dancer. You prepare to say something when all you can do is say her name. At that moment she spots you as her eyes go wide. Suddenly the unicorn turns and runs down the street.

You try desperately to follow her, the distinct landmarks of shops and homes blurring in a sea of colors as you tried to catch up. You didn’t know what you were going to say if you did catch up with her. You just wanted to apologize for bumping into her and for whatever happened between you that moment before. You didn’t care that you couldn’t remember what happened between you and Moon Dancer, nor did you care what Minuette said about you keeping away from her. All you wanted to do was to learn the truth, and the only way you knew how was to catch up with her and talk. But no matter how fast you ran she was always far away.

At last you saw her turn a corner, which you quickly followed suit. You found yourself standing in an alley dead ended by a high brick wall. Moon Dancer stopped in front of it, realizing that she was trapped. She turned around, her face carrying a look of frustration and fear of feeling trapped.

“Stay away!” she said loudly which caused you to come no further.

“I’m not trying to hurt you,” you said trying to relax your body to show you meant it.

“Yeah, like you didn’t plan to hurt me before,” she said as her words dripped with the venom of a mare scorned.

“I just want to talk,” you pleaded, “I want to know what happened.”

Before she or you could say anything you heard another voice behind you say, “Hey!”

You turned at the moment to see Minuette standing there, not with her usual friendly smile but with a scowl, her horn glowing and crackling with magic. She seemed bigger than when you last met her, the shadow cast by her form darkening the already bleak alleyway.

“Did I not say you couldn’t see her ever again?” she said as she approached you. You felt yourself backing away as Moon Dancer moved around you and joined Minuette’s side, her horn now alive with magic. Finally you felt your back hit the hard surface of the brick wall, and now you felt trapped.

“Please, I just wanted talk,” you said alternating your gaze between the two angry unicorns, “I wanted to know what I did wrong.”

Instead of getting an answer, the two mares fired their magic, streams of blue and purple energy aimed for you.

***

You woke up as cold sweat poured down your face as you gasped for air. You immediately began to feel your arms, legs, face, and body as if to confirm that you were in one piece. Knowing you were safe, you took a quick look of your surroundings, as if your eyes would play tricks on you. To your relief, you were in the safety of your bedroom within your apartment, not in some alleyway.

“It was only a dream. But it felt so real!”

You looked over at the clock by your bed, signaling that you had only an hour to get ready for work and eat. As you went through the morning ritual, you couldn’t forget the memory of the dream you had, especially Minuette acting so hostile towards you.

“She’s not like that,” you said as you pulled a clean shirt over your head, “She wouldn’t attack me if I somehow saw Moon Dancer again on the street, right? No, Minuette is the kindest pony I’ve known and we’re great friends. Maybe I’m just stressing myself out.”

Pushing the memory of the dream to the back of your mind, you did a final check of how you looked before heading down the familiar stairs and out to the street. You almost expected to see Moon Dancer once again in the street, but to your surprise and a little relief there was nopony that you knew in the crowd. It wasn’t really that much of a surprise of not seeing her as Canterlot was a big city. For all you knew, she could be just visiting the city and that your encounter was a one-off moment.

You walked only a short distance before entering the bookstore, your new job. The place was already open with a few ponies already milling about the various shelves. It was a nice open bookstore with its walls lined with tall shelves filled with nonfiction books and several smaller shelves in the center of the room with fiction books. Near the front of the store was a small coffee bar and the check-out area with a few registers lining the counter. Lastly there were several doors in the back of the store leading to the restrooms, the main office, and the big storage room.

“Oh good, you made it,” a voice said from the check-out. You looked over to see a white pony with a pink mane and tail smiling back at you. It was another one of your friends from school, Twinkle Shine, who loved learning and you were not surprised when you learned she opened a bookstore.

“Yep, I made it,” you said with a laugh, “thanks again for giving me this opportunity, and telling me about the apartment.”

“You’re welcome! Thank you for being able to work here. I could use the extra hooves to help me. I thought that it would be easy running a bookstore, but there are tons to do!”

“Alright, so what do you need me to do first?”

“Well, I just got a few boxes of new books in the back to put out. Why now start there?”

“You got it!” you said giving a smart salute to her before starting the first day of your new life.

Author's Note

A little bridge between the first two chapters and what's to come. And we get another new character, Twinkle Shine!