2.1: Normalcy?

As far as I was concerned, I had a normal week. Sure, my home was destroyed and a castle had appeared near Ponyville, but this was normal. My home being destroyed was disheartening, but I fell in love with my castle upon further inspection. The only redeeming quality was the amount of bookshelves.

The amount of bookshelves sent a blizzard down my back and wings, and my smile rivaled the Ghastly Gorge in length. There was a three story library, patiently awaiting the hoard of knowledge that would soon come.

As I walked back to my eyesore of a castle to put some donated books away, I saw Spike awaiting my return. Of course he had a fold up chair and a comic book, but that just told me he was enjoying himself.

He needs more of that, I thought to myself.

As I came up to the front 'door', Spike saw me and hurried over .

"Whatcha got there Twi?" He asked in his childlike voice.

He knew as much as I did, being my study buddy for years. He was still technically just a baby dragon, though. It made me wonder if his hoard would be one of knowledge.

"Oh, just some old law books from Mayor mare. I'm planning on shelving them, then going to the post office." I responded, books in a safe stack, firm in my telekinetic grip.

"So, what can I do for you? " he asked eagerly.

I barely hold back a flinch. He doesn't know, but I heard he and Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie the other day. They were trying to come with ways to deal with what they thought was a hellhound in the room, my house's destruction. It wasn't necessary, but I had to admit that I had shut myself into my castle in the week that I had it. I was just taking note of all the rooms to map them. Not my fault this castle was larger than Celestia's!

"If you want, you can keep mapping. I have most of the first floor done in this book," I floated the fold up book in question over to him, "and the second floor is about halfway done. Remember that-"

"Each box is a meter in length. I can do that!" He interrupted.

He took the book and ran, starting work as fast as he could. I walked towards the middle of the castle to my library.

I need to remember to go by Rarity's for gems, cook something for him tonight. I thought to myself. Might as well grab some curry and vegetables, make his favorite dish.

I made a shopping list as I unloaded the books onto quadrant 11, section H, Isle 3 down.

"I hereby proclaim this the historical texts of law territory." I muttered as I scanned texts to decide the order of the new books. "Huh. Must be a typo." I said as I skimmed 'Law of the Everfree' by Firma. I continued skimming, taking no notice of it or the others.

A couple minutes later the books were neatly shelved, and I was skipping out of the room.

I headed towards town at a brisk pace, enjoying the sky and clouds. The rainbow streak across the sky missed the clouds, so I assumed that Rainbow was stunt flying. She slowed as she came into town, busting a few clouds before flying off again. I knew I could fly at those speeds too, but I was mostly just happy to be able to fly at all. The flying lessons helped for sure.

When I got closer to town, Rainbow's streak skidded and dropped to my side. After several years of this mare crashing next to me or in my library, I couldn't act phased if I wanted to.

Immediately I noticed the yellow band across her left hoof. It was either a joy buzzer or an insignia. My answer was leaning towards the former as the weather mare/stunt flyer started speaking.

"Hey Twi. How are you? " she asked upside-down on a cloud.

"Just fine. And yourself?" I asked suspiciously.

"We'll, no broken bones yet, so pretty dang good." There was a pause while we walked towards the border of multicolored two-story homes. "You think you could help me with something, Twilight?" She finally asked.

"Such as?" I shot back.

"We'll, Pinkie's being extra… Pinkie right now. I would try to approach her, but she's twitching worse than that bog a year or two back." She seemed to have thought of a mistake, as she quickly blurted "not her Pinkie sense, but like… sugar-rush-oh-my-Celestia-we're-all-gonna-die twitching." She finished with a gasp of air.

After a second of pretending to think about it, I responded with "And I would be able to help, why?"

Rainbow was silent at this. "Well, you know as much about that mare as I do, and she's being weirder than normal. I'm scared of her touching buildings right now, as she'd likely cause one to collapse or something."

"I'll check up on her." I told Rainbow.

Rainbow flew off while I walked through town, taking many left turns.

"Hey Twilight!" Lyra said as she came up to me. She had a broken string on her harp. "Do you think you could do me a favor? One of my strings broke, and there weren't any at the music store that I could buy. I don't want to have to replace all of the strings, and was hoping you'd know a spell to fix it?" She asked me hopefully.

I lit up my horn and the ends of the string came together and stayed. "I'd recommend you leave your harp alone for about five minutes so the magic can do its work. Other than that, anything I can do?" I asked, Lyra following me to Sugarcube Corner.

Lyra shook her head and started taking out a bit pouch.

"Wait! Payment isn't necessary!" I voiced before she got the wrong idea.

"We'll, I was going to get a treat for the both of us, maybe even a bit of… oh I don't know… cake?" She said as I rolled my eyes.

"We can still have cake though, right?"

Lyra smirked and we went into the Cake's shop. Inside, Pinkie was nowhere to be seen. Mrs. Cake was at the counter, thinking. There weren't many costumers, as the lunch rush was still an hour away.

Inside Sugarcube Corner, there was Rarity having a scone, the Cutie Mark Crusaders taste testing some new creation, and Bon Bon at the window seat. She seemed to be staring into space, and I didn't want to disturb anypony.

I walked up to Mrs. Cake. "Hi. Is Pinkie on break?" I asked, concerned.

"We thought it be best she have the day off. She ran off to the edge of the Whitetail Woods, fidgeting all the way." Mrs. Cake told me.

"My castle's near there. Do you want me to check up on her when I head back?"

"I wouldn't recommend it Twilight. She needs… things. It's not a good idea right now" Mrs Cake warned.

"Pinkie being her brand of weird is nothing, but this sounds like Pinkie being a normal weird…" I trailed off.

I got some bits for 6 of their fresh cupcakes, and left with a slice of strawberry-chocolate cake. It was sweet and had the perfect strawberry-to-chocolate ratio. It was gooey and had chunks of strawberry that made me yearn for another bite.

The slice was gone the moment I stepped out the door.

I went to the market for ingredients and then the road to the Whitetail Woods.
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

Between Twilight's home being destroyed, Discord's betrayal, and the destruction of part of the Whitetail Woods, I was a little overwhelmed. I had injured animal friends, I had Discord being… normal. I had a lot on my plate that Monday. From when I woke up, I was rushing about. I made dinner for the nocturnal animals, breakfast for the rest, got my tea set ready for Discord, and left for Whitetail Woods for the eighth time that week.

To be fair, I left later than I had, going at noon instead of dawn.

Whitetail Woods in the summer had every type of green and brown I could imagine. I loved sitting under the trees and listening to the orchestra of birds, squirrels, and other wildlife living there.

I noticed every hole and nook. Nothing went untouched as I checked for animals. A small time and a mane full of various animals later I found a small clearing of brush, perfect for a medium sized animal to get cozy under.

When I checked, I came across something unusual: Pinkie. She was twitching more than usual, but alone and quiet otherwise. Her attention seemed to be on a Bluejay flying around.

"Pinkie?" I called out. Her ear pointed towards me as she let out a sigh.

"Yes Fluttershy?" She asked in her high pitched voice. It didn't scare any animals. It seemed like there was something missing, I just couldn't put my hoof on it.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. "Not that you shouldn't be here or anything, I'm just-"

"Concerned?" She finished.

I nodded before realizing she was looking away from me. "Mhm"

"Well, I just needed to come out here. I like this place, you know?" I came around to sit next to her. "I haven't had to use my little hiding spot since you girls became my best friends, but I needed somewhere away from ponies…" She trailed off.

My concern grew.

"Well, why did you have to use this spot so often?" I asked.

"I… I don't want to say. Just… know that I'll be fine in a bit." She said, her twitching getting worse. I noticed it was mostly her neck as she refused to look at me, instead focusing on a squirrel.

We st there in silence until I realized why I came out here in the first place.

"I'm sorry for leaving Pinkie, but I need to check for any more injured animals in the forest." I rushed, looking at my friend for understanding.

Pinkie didn't look at me, but I could still feel understanding emanating from her.

"G'bye Fluttershy" Pinkie called out as I left that particular spot in the forest.

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

My little excursion to the Whitetail Woods for Pinkie led me to Fluttershy, wandering around for the umpteenth time. I respected her willingness to come out and help the animals, but I got worried about her own health every now and then.

Either way, I walked up to the butterscotch mare she had leaves in her mane, her wings and neck were slightly damp. She wasn't facing me, but the way her ear was tilting told me she knew I was there.

"Fluttershy! Hi." I said.

"Hello Twilight. How are you?"

"Well, I'm doing well. I got some donations from Mayor Mare, so I skimmed those for a bit. I was trying to find Pinkie, and I heard that she came here. Do you know where she is?"

"Pinkie's between some bushes, just sitting there." Fluttershy looked worried at this, and I probably did too.

"I'm going over, can you point me to her?"

Fluttershy pointed deeper in, gave me directions, and left to continue searching for wounded animals. I went towards the mountain at the other side of the woods, humming a song with no tune.

Looking around at the trail of the Running of the Leaves race, I started reminiscing. I thought of the disaster at the Grand Galloping Gala that year, our trial with Discord, and my trouble with Pinkie's sense.

As if I had summoned the pony in question, Pinkie poked out of three bushes. She popped out, looking around, then went back in. And back out she came, looking once more, and went back in. The third time, she backed out, flank first, with a camo hat.

"Pinkie? What are you doing?" I asked the fourth time she popped out.

"Looking for friends, since this is supposed to be a secret." She whispered.

She realized her mistake.

Then she jumped like a cat would and vanished.

I stood there for a second before sighing.

"Pinkie will be Pinkie." I muttered, teleporting home.

Pop

I looked around the room I arrived in, and determined it was one of the three kitchens. There was a window, and I saw I was on the second floor, near the map room. The balcony was on the other side of one of the castle's corners, hidden from my view. I had a view of Ponyville and a field that stretched from there to the castle.

Spike came in, grabbed a plate of gems and sandwiches, and left. He was seemingly oblivious that I was in the room. He was probably just used to me popping in unexpectedly.

"Hey Spike! How much did you get done?" I asked, yelling into the next room.

"I got a quarter done Twi!" He yelled back slightly muffled.

"Thanks! I'm going to read for a bit! You can stop anytime!" I added the last part.

Pop

I teleported 100 yards through whatever gem the castle was made of, straight to the center. It was open air, and I opened my wings to fly to the third floor. I found the only books I had so far, grabbing the one by Firma. Instead of skimming it l like earlier, I flipped to the one hundred fifty-first page.

Then to the 153rd.

Then to the 8th

I flipped through the whole book, speed reading the entire book in an hour, and it still baffled me.

How could there have been 3 princesses before Discord if Celestia and Luna are the only alicorns here today?