It was a typical day in the Canterlot Royal Observatory, scientists running tests and making observations, or writing out equations, and interns fetching coffee and doing other menial and unimportant tasks. There were a few ponies in the break room, chatting about new discoveries, solutions to problems, or what they could do to the interns as a little practical joke. One of the mathematicians was marking up parts of an equation, only to erase it when he saw the initial flaws in its construction. It was a pretty normal day, unless you were a pony named Vanilla Swirl. Vanilla Swirl was the Observatory's foremost expert on theoretical physics, and was recognized for his work in cosmology. Only a few select individuals knew of his lesser known work on worm holes and alternate dimensions. Vanilla did not need an intern but he received many applications, he didn't know why however. The real reason, the interns said, was who wouldn't want to work for somepony that was looked upon as crazy by most people not in his field of study? The interns talked about how lately he was very reclusive and almost never left his work. One had even mentioned him spending days working on his secret project in his lab. No one, not even the other scientists knew what Dr. Vanilla did in his office, nor did they desire to know, they were content with the mundane tasks they repeated everyday.
Vanilla was hard at work on his top secret project. It only seemed like yesterday that he had sent the letter to Princess Celestia about the potential his new discovery. He had finally found a way to tear space-time and create a wormhole! The Princess had seemed interested and had given Vanilla whatever he needed to work on his new project. In reality it had been two years ago, but that all seemed irrelevant now. He had a prototype of his machine, after years of exhausting work. The only problem was that he had never tested it. "I have finally done it.", thought Vanilla too himself,"I hope that this thing will work this time, I have invested so much in it". He walked around the machine until he found the switch that would power the machine up and paused for a second. He wanted too savor the moment and pray that his machine would function. When he flipped the switch it kicked to life. Vanilla screamed, due to the sudden onset of excitement, at the top of lungs, so much so that the other scientists thought that something had gone wrong, but where relieved when they heard the laughter. Vanilla went to the control panel, desperate to try out his machine. He slowly typed out the sequence, and fed it into the machine. The machine began the process. Everything went dark in the Observatory. The machine has absorbed the excess energy from the surrounding area to assist in the process. The machine reached the second stage, where, theoretically an extremely dense amount of matter would be utilized to tear space-time, but something went wrong. The matter was beginning to collapse on itself. Knowing that this would spell catastrophe, Vanilla killed the machine. When Vanilla left his lab, there were a few members of the Royal Guard ready to escort him to the castle. Sighing, Vanilla went off with the Guards, while his colleagues looked on.
"Princess I can explain!" begged Vanilla Swirl. He had been summoned by Celestia after she heard about the incident and apparent dangers of what could have happened at the observatory from a report filled out by the guards when they took Vanilla Swirl. "Please do Dr. Vanilla", replied Celestia in a rather unpleasant mood. "Well you see Princess," began Vanilla, "I have finally created a semi-working prototype of the machine I have been working on. When I finished, I was so curious to see how it would work, I just couldn't help myself." Vanilla tried to appeal to Celestia's sense of compassion and mercy. "Your "semi-working prototype" could have killed everyone," she said back in a more refined but still visibly agitated tone. "Princess I am so close to finishing what will be one of my greatest accomplishments! There has to be some sort of agreement we can reach!" spat out Vanilla. Vanilla knew that he could not lose what he considered would be one of the greatest achievements of ponykind. "Do you have any suggestions Doctor? " replied Celestia. Vanilla walked over too a nearby window, and looked around. He noticed the mountain by that small town known as Ponyville.
He assumed that he could use the town to get supplies and use the mountain as a safe house for his experiments. "Princess, how about that mountain over there? No one would be around except myself, so I could work without fear of injuring others." Celestia pondered the idea for a moment, she was still unsure about the consequences of the experiment should Vanilla Swirl be unable to stop his own creation. Remembering that this was Doctor Vanilla Swirl of all people, she trusted him. In a slightly more positive tone she said to Vanilla, "Doctor I will allow you to work on the mountain, under the condition that you will keep your work a secret and you send me reports every week so I may keep up with the status of your work." "Thank you my dear Princess, thank you," shouted Vanilla excitedly. Vanilla apologized for his outburst and thanked Celestia once more for her kindness. "You are welcome, doctor. I will arrange for your machine and what you may need from your laboratory to be moved to the mountain, you ought to gather your things and head out on the train to Ponyville tomorrow." "Yes Princess," said Vanilla. The guards escorted him to the outside of the castle. There he headed to his small house near the observatory to gather some of his things. It was midnight when he was finished gathering the last of his things, and he was exhausted. Vanilla climbed into bed, ready for whatever the next day would bring.
Vanilla yawned as he awoke from the relatively calm ride to Ponyville. He had not gotten much sleep when he got home last night. His mind was focused on what lied at hand, finishing his work. When the train stopped, it was around noon, and the train station was busy, with passengers rushing to their trains, ponies buying tickets, and others meandering around, waiting on their train. Vanilla gathered his things and stepped off of the train. He took little notice of the ponies around him, and the other ponies did not notice him. As he walked through Ponyville he rather enjoyed how simplistic and calm Ponyville was. It was so different than the busy life in Canterlot. To kill time he thought of what his machine would bring. Vanilla looked about the town center. He thought that this small town had quite a bit to offer. Before he could start Vanilla was greeted by an enthusiastic pink pony.
"Hi there!" said the pink pony. "I'm Pinkie Pie! I know everypony in Ponyville but your new so I don't know you which means I have to know you to keep knowing everyone!" Vanilla's mouth dropped just a bit. He was unsure on what to do: entertain this Pinkie Pie, or just ignore her. It isn't like he will be her friends anyways, and he has work to attend to. He thought for a bit and decided to be kind and talk to the pony for a bit. "My name is Doctor Vanilla Swirl. I am here from Canterlot on very important business, so please if you will excuse me." Before Vanilla could get away the pony hopped in front of him once more. "Wait, I give everypony a welcome party, you gotta have one!" she said with the same undying enthusiasm. "I appreciate the sentiment but I really must go. As he walked away, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Startled he picked up speed. As he was going Pinkie Pie appeared in front of him, with a cart. of some kind. "Maybe you will like MY PARTY CANNON!" Then a loud boom sent out confetti around Vanilla. The sudden boom had startled Vanilla, but he regained his composure when he say that no harm had been done. As he sat up a piece of cake was shoved into his mouth. "mhhph" said Vanilla, unable to speak due to the cake. He was more than ready to leave. He figured the best way was to comply with her. "Thank you so much," said Vanilla, "this party was excellent." "So are we friends?" she said. Vanilla was growing tired of her constant enthusiasm. He wondered if she were like this at all times, but he didn't care, if he could escape it now then he would be fine. "Sure," he said in a faked sound of happiness. "Great!" she said. When she began to hop off singing some song that he was unfamiliar with, and he took the time to run out of the square.
When he stopped running he settled down on a nearby bench. He was panting quite heavily from his running he was just glad to get away from that pony. As he was resting he looked around at the scenery. He saw other ponies walking around, some animals going about their tasks, and one library. "Hmm a library", thought Vanilla, "maybe I should go in there when I come back here for some supplies". He then saw what looked to be some kind of baby lizard riding a purple unicorn. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but saw them enter into the library. His curiosity was peaked, he wanted to go speak to these two, especially the lizard creature, but he figured he should get to the mountain before Celestia lowered the sun for the day. So he gathered his things and set off towards the mountain.
