Chapters A young colt wanders through the forest, covered in dirt and filth. He has been here for a while now, about a year and a half he believes. A year and a half? He can't believe it, but he's counted the days, he doesn't know if it's accurate, but if it's inaccurate in some way he at least knows it's definitely been a year.
This could have been avoided he thinks, you could have just went somewhere that wasn't the forest, and yet, he doesn't regret a thing.
It's been awhile since he's found anything new, this forest usually always had something bizarre right around the corner. Hell he even saw an Ursa once, the thing was absolutely huge, he just hopes it's a major and that the smaller ones aren't really that big. It's also been a while since he's been in contact with a water source, and thus, he smells absolutely horrendous . His green coat has been matted by stains of dirt and other abundances of soil, his mane unkempt and looking as if he had walked through quite an amount of low-hanging branches, which he did.
As he keeps walking along to what seemed like an endless amount of trees and bushes of all kinds, he sees something that catches his eye. Usually he would have mistook it as a rock, but, it was too uh, what's the word for it? Geometric? Sure, we'll go with that he thinks. He moves closer towards the geometric bit of stone, keeping his ears out for any sounds that seemed out of the ordinary, you could never be sure if something like a manticore was waiting just behind you to bite your head off in these woods.
As he examines the stone he notes that it is, in fact, not a regular rock, and looked to be carved. He surveyed the area to see if he could find anymore like it, and low and behold he sees a gathering of them behind where it was at. He follows the trail for a bit and seems to come across something he has not see in these woods before, ruins it looked like. As he goes farther ahead still following the bits of stone he comes into a sort of clearing where, he thought to himself, "Well holy shit that's just there isn't it?".
The "that" that he was referring to seems to be a giant castle, well from it's golden ages it seemed. It was in ruin, the centerpiece looked to have completely collapsed, the two towers that were somehow still standing in opposite corners of the castle reaching highest. It looked like it was falling apart, which well, was probably indeed what it was doing. He could see random batches of moss littered on the side of the walls and on the broken top of what was left of them. It was exactly like one of those "haunted castles" he imagined in his mind.
But, he did need a place to sleep and a shelter to hide away from all the big shot predators in the area. So naturally, he started walking towards it. It seemed to him that he walked to where the back of the castle was, he just hoped that castles had back doors. Upon getting close to the structure he found that, it did indeed, have a back door. The problem was, they were huge, and he probably couldn't have pushed them open if he tried. Luckily the place was falling apart so he just went through a hole in the wall he was small enough to climb through.
The inside actually wasn't too bad, it had a nice eerie vibe to it. Which believe me, he thinks, is an improvement to the forest. He walks down the first corridor he sees, well actually it wasn't he just felt like going right instead of left or straight, right always seemed to be a good way to go. As soon as the thought comes to his mind he spots something on the ground, well not necessarily on it but in it. He thought it was just a crack and would've wrote it off as one of it hadn't been for the fact it was perfectly straight, and I'm the shape of a square. Oh, this'll be better than I thought he thinks, there's booby traps .
Of course instead of walking on it like an absolute doofus he walks around it. If there was trap doors, then there must have been other traps too.
A few hours later...
He was sadly mistaken, there was no tripwires not snares or traps of any kind besides obviously placed trap doors. He had walked around the entirety of the building, occasionally passing by old, decrepit rooms. Well, he thought, might as well check those rooms out if I'm going to be crashing here.
The first room that he found himself in was a library, filled with old dusty books. He would of read one if he wasn't so concerned of finding a place to sleep for the night. Upon further inspection of the room he stumbled upon a rather comfortable looking chair, albeit old and dusty from the years of it being there; but he had to give it to whoever designed the furniture, that was a nice fucking chair. Oh! And there was two of them!
They both sat across from each other on each ends of a long table, presumably one you would use to study or read books on. Which made sense considering he was in a library. Surely the probable ghosts that haunted this place wouldn't mind if he sat down in one of them for just a moment.
As he sits down on the chair he seems to have got onto it a little to forcefully, as it starts leaning backwards. The only thing that he could really think in that moment was, "Damn am I really that fat?". As he prepared for the chair to impact the ground and probably break into a gajillion pieces considering how old it was, it stopped. He sat, perplexed, until he looked down and saw that one of the chair legs seemed to be attached to the ground, wait a minute, this is like, a textbook secret switch, did he just activate a secret switch? As those thoughts went into his mind the bookshelf just beside the table began to split down the middle and slide open, revealing a room once hidden behind it. "Well that couldn't have been more dramatic," he mumbles to himself.
He walks in to the now not-so-secret-secret-room™. To his left he could see, not so surprisingly, another bookshelf. To his right he could see what looked like some sort of bed? Except up higher? Maybe it was for a pet or something. In the back of the room he could see two doors, one decorated with the sun, and one decorated with the moon. What intrigued him most however, was in the center of the room; In the center there was a stand with a book on it.
Now usually when you see a stand with a book on it, it's gotta be important. So naturally, he immediately headed towards that, but not before he threw a stone at the centerpiece to make sure there wasn't any sort of trap waiting for him. The title read "The Journal of The Two Sisters" in gold writing. Wait was this like, ancient stuff, did he find like a royal diary or something? Well now he had to read it.
Author's Note
Here we go
Twisted: Be Decently Surprised
So, as he has now found out. It was, indeed, a royal diary. He would've preferred royal secrets or some kind journal depicting a scandal among the royals but he supposed beggars can't be choosers. Now, onto the contents of said diary.
Now as you know in a typical diary it shows the feelings or personal experiences of an individual. How this one differs though is that it was written by two individuals. How can it be written by two individuals you ask? Well I won't go into the specifics of what's in the dairy (group diary?) but it seemed to be some kind of bonding thing between the two sisters. It seems they wrote it together so they could become closer in some way, but from what he's heard it seemed to have the opposite effect. He still remembers the story of Princess Luna going batshit crazy for some reason.
It was only then he realized how long he'd been reading the book, as the sun was about start setting it seemed. He needed to find some sort of shelter in here, and fast.
Wait, this is one. This is literally a secret room that looks to have been untouched for a millenia. What kind of animal would be looking for a secret door? There was just one problem with that idea though, if he closed the doors would he be able to get out? Well, it was supposed to be secret, who makes a secret room that has the possibility of locking themselves on the inside. He better get searching he supposed.
Half an hour later...
"GOD FUCKING DAMNIT"
Wow, that was a bit abrupt. It is justified though considering he still hadn't found some kind of switch to shut the door. He's looked basically everywhere in the room- oh wait a godamn minute. You're kidding me.
As he stops tilting the podium to see if he could find some hidden switch he slowly turns around. He hadn't looked in the most obvious place, the bookshelf.
He walks over to the bookshelf and starts to scan the various books on it. He found some like "The Royal Etiquette", or "Basic Baking For Dummies". Wow, that one is a little insulting isn't it? Instead of looking through every single book though, he just starts pulling them one by one until suddenly, *click*.
He looks back at the bookshelf and sees it, rather dramatically still, start sliding close. After a few seconds or so it has fully closed and he's left in the dimly lit room. The dusty candelabra above still somehow generating light after all these years. "Some magic bullshit probably," he thinks to himself.
He looks back at the bookshelf to see the book he pulled to shut the not-so-secret-anymore-secret-room's-door™. Low and behold it was the only book that didn't even have a cover, he was hoping it'd be less obvious. Another thing that stood out was a thin, well what looked like some kind of pamphlet tucked between two books. He supposed some more snooping wouldn't hurt anyone. The title of the pamphlet looking book read "The Night Doesn't Judge, the author was written down as "Lulu", which he only supposed was a little pet name between the two sisters.
Upon closer inspection it appeared to actually be a poem of sorts, it read as follows:
The Night Doesn't Judge Though the moon always seems to be starting down at you, watching But that is the only thing it can do Watch The stars seem like a spotlight Illuminating your every action under them And yet there is no emotion in the eyes of the moon and the light of the stars It shines down on you, the true beauty of it makes you shiver The Night Doesn't Judge
"Well that was oddly, uh, not really a poem? Aren't they supposed to rhyme?"
It was the only thing he could think to say at the moment. Sure, he could see the intent behind it but in the end it just seemed to be someone trying to write one for the first time and had no real sense of rhythm.
On the back of it seemed to be a note reading: "Very good, Lulu! -signed C"
He was going to guess that stood for Celestia. Jeez did she write everything in gold? Even the stuff she wrote in the journal-diary-thing™ was written in gold.
Moving on from that he supposed, the sun was going to set soon. He should start sleeping so he could wake early in the morning to see what else these ruins had to offer.
He attempts to climb onto that weirdly tall bed thing and may or may not have fallen multiple times. After a few minutes he has finally managed to climb onto it and lay down. Sadly for him there were no blankets, alas, he was used to it at this point. At least he had something actually comfortable to sleep on this time. With that final thought in his head, he falls asleep.
And Dreams...
Author's Note
Wibbl wobbl
*gasp *
She awakes with a start, surveying her surroundings. She seems to have just woken up. Well, she has, but not dreaming like everyone who goes to sleep usually does. No, she was wandering through the dreamscape, ridding nightmares from ponies dreams so they may have a good night's sleep.
"...........*sigh*"
It was the same dreamer yet again. She could not gain access to their dreams no matter how hard she tried. They were blocking her somehow. It was new to her, usually if somepony was having a nightmare she would enter it, eliminate it, and leave. This one was different however, this one didn't seem to want to let anything in. Their mind was extremely guarded.
Just as she was continuing her thoughts a knock sounded at her bedchambers.
"Sister?"
"One moment!" she replied.
The Princess of The Night walks to her bedroom door and opens it. There in the doorway is her sister, Princess Celestia, or "Celly" as she occasionally called her.
"Sister, why does thou happen to be up at this early in the morning? It is has only just turned 6," she asked.
"Well you have been waking up early as of late, I just thought I should say good morning."
"You don't have to do that for me sister."
"Oh, but I am aren't I?" she says as she walks into the room and closes the doors with her magic.
"Is it the dreamer again?" Celestia asked, likely already knowing the answer.
"Is it not obvious?" Luna says as she tiredly plops down onto her bed.
"You still cannot access their dreams?"
"I am afraid not," Luna says in reply.
"Do you still not know as to why?"
"I've only come up with theories. One is that they just don't want to let anyone in."
"They just don't want to let anybody into their dreams?"
"No no, I mean as in mentally . It seems that they want help, they are just either too afraid or they just don't want to let anybody help."
"I see," Celestia gains a thoughtful look on her face.
"Can you not just somehow pinpoint their location in real life and see what troubles them?"
"Sister, you know that everypony is still afraid of "The Mare in The Moon". It is likely they will just think I am some kind of monster. Additionally, I don't think my duties would allow enough time for a thing such as that."
"What could be troubling them so much that bit even you can get in?"
"I wish I knew sister. This one individual has had these dream for about a year and a half now. I just hope that whatever issue it is that it gets resolved. It's scary to think what kind of nightmares they could be having as to where not even I can access them."
A long moment passes where they both say nothing, just sitting in the silence of the moment.
"So," Celestia abruptly says, "I am feeling quite hungry, aren't you?"
"Sister, you are always feeling hungry," Luna says, snickering to herself.
"Oh, hush you!" Celestia says in a playful manner, "Why don't we go get something to eat?"
Luna sighs.
"Sure."
Author's Note
Waow
His eyes snap open, the veil of sleep finally leaving him. He slowly gets up from the pet-bed thing™ and surveys his surroundings. Everything is as he left it- wait, no it wasn't.
Upon looking at the doors that were decorated with the sun and moon he discovered there were both... glowing? At the very least there was light coming out of them. Intrigued by the sudden change he slowly walks up to the one decorated with the sun. He looks at it closely and discovers, oh wait a minute. Oh my gosh, he's such an idiot. They weren't even doors, they were stained glass windows. God he couldn't believe he was such an idiot, he was so focused on finding some switch and reading some old diary thing that he hadn't even bothered to look.
Here he thought he found some kind of royal treasure room. He had to admit those were some pretty nice windows though.
"Welp," he thought to himself, "may as well see what else is around this shindig. God did he really just think that, shindig? That was just terrible, how did I visibly make myself cringe from that?"
Well let's move away from that absolutely horrendous thing he thought into his head and get to exploring shall we?
Upon opening back up the secret room and closing it back up again via the chair switch he heads back into a hallway. After a bit of wandering he finds himself in some kind of, uh, throne room? He guesses it did used to be a castle but jeez the age really took its toll on it. The what he assumed used to be red carpet covering the entirety of the floor looked to be old and clearly worn and was kind of damp, ew. There were holes absolutely everywhere, littering the walls and the staircase leading up to the thrones, which were in surprisingly good condition.
Upon closer inspection of the floors there was, go ahead, guess. Another trap door, well, kinda. This one was different, when he attempted to open it it didn't immediately collapse in on itself like they would usually do. Instead one side of the stone raised, as if it was supposed to go up instead? He tried to open it but sadly he only had hooves, hooves that were definitely not slim enough to go between the cracks and lift it up. He guesses that it will have to be another mystery for now.
Upon walking up to the staircase leading to the thrones he discovers there is a little space underneath them. Upon looking under that he sees of what looks to be the outline of a door hidden behind one of the sets of the stairs. Clearly meant to be hidden but the age of the castle made it quite the more obvious. He looked any switches or pressure plates along the wall or floor surrounding it that could've opened it but did not find any, yet another mystery.
When he exists from underneath the stairs and onto the platform where the thrones sat he immediately sits down in both of them, because who wouldn't? Sadly there was no hidden switch from moving the chairs or leaning them back this time. Something he did find interesting though was actually behind them. Behind Celestia's throne he found a tiny little panel at the underside. Anybody who was not looking for something like this would've missed it easily. Upon lifting the panel he looks into it and it seems to be some kind of pressure plate on the wall of the inside of it.
Upon pushing on said pressure plate he hears the sliding and gritting of stone, a telltale sign that you've opened something probably important. When he steps off of the platform he discovers something. You know that outline of a door under the stair? It was open! One point for Twisted, zero for spooky castle.
When he enters the once hidden room, after looking for any tripwires and such first of course, there seems to be a set of spiraling stairs leading downward. Only one way to go he guesses. Treading very carefully down the steps he soon finds himself at a door, one depicting a single bit at the front. Upon opening said door he finds something that almost makes his jaw drop.
There was SO. MUCH. MONEY. Piles upon piles of it littered the room, like we're talking piles you imagined would be in a dragon's lair. Upon looking around at the room some more he sees a few items on the wall, what looks to be some kind of broad or great sword, with a line starting from the bottom of the blade where upon reaching the top, splits into two and goes diagonally. The second item was even cooler, some kind of blade attached to a chain, looked a little something like this:
Looking around the room some more there was a podium on the center of it. Which had a saddlebag? Like it didn't look different or anything it just looked like a plain old saddlebag.
Before entering the room, naturally he picked up a nearby stone and threw it ahead of him. There don't seem to be any traps and he was absolutely anxious to get in there so he winged it. Luckily there didn't seem to be any traps upon entering, so that was a good thing.
Upon entering the room the first thing he approached were the mounted weapons. Naturally he grabbed the thing that was small enough to where he could actually carry it, the CHAINBLADE as he was now calling it. When the blade entered his hooves he immediately wanted to test it out, so naturally he gave it a few test swings. Wow, the thing was absolutely graceful when you swing it, it was a thing of beauty is what it was.
He sets the chainblade ™ aside and looks at the, uh, really big sword. He attempts to take it off of it's place on the wall for shits and giggles.
"What the fuck?"
Um, it wasn't falling. It was actually not that heavy. He was a literal child and he was somehow holding this massive beast. Definitely some kind of enchantment, yet again some more magic bullshit. He gives it a few tests swings and sheesh, this thing shredded. He swung at the wall and now there's just a massive slash where he cut into it. He wishes he could take it with him if it wasn't for the massive size of it.
He puts the sword on top of the chainblade and something, well something outright bizarre happens. The sword well, shrunk into the hilt of the chainblade. He thinks he'll wait to see what the hell just happened so he could mess with some more shit in the room, namely those saddlebags in the center.
Why some ordinary looking saddle bags were in the middle of a room full of riches and mystical weapons he had no idea. He swiped the saddlebags off of the podium and immediately backs away. Luckily there was no pressure sensor thingy under it. He puts the saddlebags on and does the first thing that comes to his mind, he stuffs the with as much coinage as he could.
After of few minutes of that he realizes that the bits didn't seem to be taking up any room in the saddlebags. Looking closer at them he realized when he puts the bits it, he couldn't see them reach the bottom. It was as if it was a black hole. He reaches his hoof into the saddlebags and attempts to grab something, low and behold he comes up with a hoof-full of bits.
"What in the shit."
He does this repeatedly with both sides of the saddlebags and keeps coming up with hoof-fulls upon hoof-fulls of bits. It seemed these saddlebags somehow didn't run out of room. Like a black hole. He thinks this is the coolest thing ever, then immediately gets back to stuffing them.
An hour and a half later...
He's been at this for awhile now judging by the fact that the amount of bits in the room has gone down drastically, but he has certainly made some ground with only a little bit left to gather.
20 minutes later...
There. He had finally cleared out the room of all the lovely coinage it had to offe, as for the remaining items in the room he put the now, uh, chainblade/sword thingy in there too.
Man you know what? He's had it with this castle bullshit, he needs make more ground anyway. If he keeps exploring this place he would be here until he died of starvation. Plus he didn't want to push his luck looking for more treasure and secrets. This castle was pretty dope but he did not want to stay in this forest for the rest of his life. He's wasted enough time, if he stayed in this forsaken forest any longer he was going to go insane. He doesn't know if it's the fact he found a pony-made structure, or the fact he finally found an actual object that this forest hadn't grown but he's now realizing how sick of this place he is.
He thinks it's time to get the heck out of dodge, whatever that meant.
Author's Note
Wealth 100
So......thinks did not go as smoothly as he hoped. Though nothing ever does in this Tartarus-esque forest. So basically what happened was he was just walking his little hoovsies through the forest and all the sudden he hears a familiar sound: *cluck . Now your everyday pony would assume it was just a chicken, but oh he knew better, that was the telltale sign that there was a cockatrice nearby, and you don't want to get caught in front of one of those, so he hid in bush.
So if you are not educated in the creatures of the Everfree, cockatrices (cockatrici?) are part chicken and part, uh, dragon he thinks. Now when you think about it that actually sounds pretty ridiculous, which it does look pretty ridiculous. But there's a catch, you can't make eye contact. Why you ask? Well when something looks it in the eyes, and no he is not shitting you, they will turn into stone stone. Now he's heard stories about the things prior to arriving in this forest so he knew what to do, thank Faust.
Sounds pretty crazy huh? Well luckily for him they weren't that hard to deal with, usually you could just go around or sneak away from them, no big deal. They were pretty unobservant too, which you think they wouldn't be considering they have to actually look at something to turn it to stone.
As he hunkers down in the bush he can heard the faint sound of scuttling. He peeks through the leaves of the bush and sees that the thing has arrived where he was just a minute ago, probably looking for anything it could victimize. Now usually he would just wait it out or something but he was currently in his "no bullshit" mood and was trying to make some ground (man he says that a lot doesn't he?). Since he was in that mood he was wanting to dispatch this encounter quickly. Now the thing with cockatrices was that, since they were part dragon, most of their body was protected by scales, so the most exploitable weak point was their head.
He waits for it to turn around, and soon enough it does and he gets the opportunity. As soon as he's sure that it won't snap it's head back for no reason he rushes out of the bush and grasps the cockatrices head. Naturally, as amy creature would, it started thrashing about, trying to get the unknown assailant off of it. The more difficult part of this encounter was getting the thing in a suitable position. It was harder to do considering the tiny dragon wings it had put he eventually gets it into a good position. He just hoped the amount of noise it was making didn't give away his position to any big-shot predators. Now all he had to do was-
*snap*
There we go. He thinks that's one of the best ones he's done too, usually he at least gets a scratch or two. Now that the hard part was over with he needed to get to a place not so out in the open. He decides that the bush is good enough. Now he needed to get some kind of stick or hard rock- oh! He's glad he picked up the chainblade now, he could actually use it for something.
He grabs said blade from his saddlebag and sticks it under one of the scales of the cockatrice. After a little bit of prying it comes right off it's flesh. This was much easier the using a stick or rock. Usually he would only have enough time to get own or two before he believes he's wasted enough time getting them. After getting precisely 20 more he decides that's enough. The rest of the body was useless anyway.
Now, I bet you're wondering why he did that. Well, since he couldn't rely on nature most of the time to give him the right conditions to start a fire considering the chaotic wether patterns of this place he'd been using cockatrice scales as a sort of substitute for flint and steel, which is why he usually gets two scales. He had not been finding quite that many cockatrices lately and the scales didn't really last that long. It was good that he was getting a supply of them now.
Now, he should start making his leave in case any predators were alerted by the sudden abundance of noise. It was safe to say he would be walking for a bit.
What is probably a few hours later...
OH MY FAUST OH MY FAUST OH MY FAUST OH MY FAUST OH MY FAUST OH MY FAUST OH MY FAUST OH MY FAUST
OK SO HIS BRAIN WAS GOING ABSOLUTELY BONKERS RIGHT NOW.
Ok..........ok, he thinks he's good now. Ok so, he found something, something he doubted he was going to find. That is A SIGN OF CIVILIZATION. A PATH. A PATH THAT AN INTELLIGENT BEING MADE.
Sorry about that. It's just, it's been a really long time. So, to recap, as he was walking and making his merry way he stumbled upon a path, one lined with some oddly engraved stones, runes he presumed. He didn't know what they were for but he would rather not step onto it to find out, it was probably some sort of protection.
After he finally gets most of his shit put together he follows the path, gosh he goes this was leading to something good.
15-20 minutes later...
IT DID. IT LEAD TO SOMETHING VERY GOOD. HIS BODY ISN'T MOVING BUT HIS MIND WAS ABSOLUTELY FREAKING THE FUCK OUT.
IT. WAS. A. TOWN. A TOWN FOR FAUSTS SAKE! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT'S BEEN?!?! SINCE HES SEEN A SIGN OF CIVILIZATION NEVERTHELESS A TOWN?!?!
HE COULD SEE PONIES. REAL. PONIES.
HE NEEDED TO GET HIS SHIT TOGETHER
BECAUSE HIS MIND WAS GOING
ABSOLUTELY. FUCKING. BONKERS.
A certain amount of time later...
Ok. Ok. He's good now. It's just........ponies, they were here , and existed .
The town looked relatively small, with houses lining the main street. Most of the buildings looked relatively similar to each other, wait, is that a giant gingerbread house? You know what he'll look into that later. There were many ponies milling about, talking, some pegasi we're in the sky flying around or pushing around clouds. Wait what? They could do that? That's... well he didn't know about that before to say the least. He could see what seemed to be a stand on the side of the street, advertising apples he thinks? An orange earth pony with a cowboy hat on was manning the cart, exchanging bits and apples with other ponies who approached her. Other than that there was nothing else noteworthy.
Ok so, he was about to go into a town, naturally they would be suspicious of a random colt who clearly needed a lengthy amount of bath time coming out of the woods right? First step: find a source of water. Faust knows he was not going anywhere deeper into the forest after seeing this. Maybe there was some kind of lake nearby, or maybe if somebody asks a question he could pass it off as slipping in mud or something...
As he was not going anywhere deeper I to the forest after this he supposed that would have to do. Another problem that arises, it was a small town. Everybody probably knew each other there, so naturally even if he was clean they would question why there was a colt alone without any of his parents. Damn, he had to make a story, and it had to be a pretty damn good one at that.
He couldn't risk anyone finding out. What if- no, nobody could.
He couldn't go back
Author's Note
Lot of timeskips in this one.
Ok, he's got something. It's rough but he'll make it up as he goes along, since nobody is really able to prove him wrong.
The story is: His parents are rich explorers and are put somewhere exploring the world, while sending him to a town to settle in while they're away. They have left him a supply of bits so he can take up a place of residence, as to explain the surplus of bits that he has. As for why he came out of the forest, uuuuh, ok so maybe he didn't fully plan it out. It shouldn't be that hard though. Hmmmmmm. He could say that's where his parents dropped him off, but considering nobody saw them come him that would probably fall apart.
Ok, this one isn't going to be as easy but it's the only one he can explain, it could also explain why he's so dirty too. He was surveying the town and the forest surrounding it. He did like to watch nature occasionally anyway, so that one could hold up too. Ok, he's got it down, if anybody asks anything he can just build on his story. Now all he had to do was walk into the town.
This was more nerve-racking than he thought. He hasn't seen any ponies in more than a year! He's forgotten how to talk to people. Ok, ok, this was fine. HE was fine. HE COULD DO THIS. Ok? Ok.
Though hesitantly at first, he does actually begin walking towards the town. When about five minutes have passed he's on the edge of the main road. He almost freezes up for a second then remembers that there were ponies in the street who could possibly call him out, so he continues walking forward. First thing he needed to do was find the uh, town hall he guesses? That's where you would usually ask for a house or something right? Though he does dread having to ask somebody though.
He spots a mare with a beige coat and dark blue and pink hair, with what seemed to be candies for a cutie mark. The so-called mare was the closest to him so he guesses he'll just ask her, and so he approaches.
"Um, excuse me ma'am?" he says.
"Oh! Hey there little guy, what is it?" she says, looking down on him.
"Do you uh, is there a town hall or something around here? And also please don't call me that."
"Oh, well I think if you just keep walking straight you'll come on it," she says, slightly startled by the colts blunt request.
"Oh, uh, thanks," he says, started to head in said direction.
"Oh, wait!"
"Huh?" he says, slightly anxious as to why she called him again.
"I don't think I've seen you around here before, are you new?"
"Uh, yeah, just showed up here today actually."
"Oh, well welcome to Ponyville! I hope you like it."
"Uh, yeah."
"Oh um, before you leave. Why are you, hmm. I don't want to be rude but why are you so dirty."
"Oh! Yeah I may have fell down a hill on the way here. Said hill may have also led into a puddle of mud."
"Oh dear, are you okay?" she says, her face looking concerned
"Yeah I'm fine, I didn't break a leg or anything if that's what you're asking."
"Oh, goo-"
All of the sudden their conversation is interrupted by a shouting of "Rattler! It's a rattler! Everybody run for their lives!"
Upon looking over to said commotion, an old mare was, quite slowly, making her way away from what looked like a vegetable cart. Looking at the vegetable cart revealed there did seem to be what looked like a snake among the produce. After waiting a couple of seconds though revealed it seemed to be just the tail of, wait, is that a griffin? The griffin says a few words to the cart-keeper then proceeds to walk away. Well, that happened I guess. Weird.
"Um," he says trying to get the attention of the mare he was talking just a minute ago, "I'm just gonna go I guess..."
"Well, take care! I hope you enjoy our little town!"
"I'll try" he says, finally walking away.
That was thankfully not as stressful as he thought it would be, though he was just asking for directions. Going towards the direction the mare pointed towards earlier, he makes his way. This didn't seem so bad so f- ope!
He stopped suddenly, as a yellow mare with a long pink mane seemed to be leading a bunch of ducks across the street.
"Come on little duckies, this way," she said
While leading the ducks however, she accidentally bumps into someone. Oh, it was the griffin from earlier actually.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!" the griffin said, starting to seem hostile.
"Oh, um. I'm sorry, I-I-I was trying to-"
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry ," the griffin says, mocking her. "Why don't you just watch where you're going doofus?"
Pfft, wow he should not find that funny. But she said doofus , who says doofus? Like c'mon.
"B-b-b-but I... I"
As the words were trying to come out of the mares mouth, the griffin reels back, and let's out an absolutely massive roar. All the other ponies watching were slightly taken aback. After a couple seconds the yellow mare cries and flys away.
"Ugh, please, all these lame ponies are driving me buggy. I gotta bail."
Just as she was about to fly away he did something, something he was probably going to regret later.
"Hey! That was a bit unnecessary wasn't it?" he says, slightly surprised that he blurted out like that. The thing that made him nervous the most was that every pony in the area was now looking at him.
"Who said that?" the griffin turns around, and upon looking, sees him, "You got something to say, little punk?"
"I mean, I did kinda say "Hey!" at you so isn't that kind of obvious? Oh wait, it was rhetorical wasn't it?"
"What are you even talking about?" her face slightly confused now
"Oh, yeah, that. That was just a little harsh wasn't it? I mean she was just leading a bunch of ducks across the road."
"She bumped into me. She got what was coming to her."
"You're.... you're joking right?"
"Why would I be joking?"
"That is just, that's like one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Like, it was just an accident."
"Well she wouldn't have bumped into me if she watches where she was going," she says, stating it matter-of-factly.
"Oh my Faust, you're actually serious."
"Ok, now I got a question little punk." she says, getting closer to him, "why's a little kid like you talking back to an adult?"
"Ok, first of all, I'm not even talking back to you. I was asking you a question. Second of all, there is no way you're an adult, you're acting younger than me right now."
"Uh-" she says, looking offended, "What did you just say about me?"
"Jeez, you can't hear either? Like c'mon I said it loud and clear."
"Uh-. Whatever, all you ponies are lame, I gotta blow this joint anyway" she says, flying away.
Now Twisted is left all alone in the middle of the street.
"And she couldn't even come up with a comeback or anything. Jeez."
Upon looking at his surroundings, he discovers that literally everybody on the street was now staring at him. This is exactly what he didn't want to happen.
"Uuuh, can y'all like, stop staring, the drama's over with"
After he said that, every pony attempts to go back to their normal business. Of course after that happens he walks away as fast as he could. That's what you get for being for trying to be a hero Twisted. Gosh, he should've just walked away. Why does he always do this?
While walking he takes note of a few things. One, a literal gigantic tree just in the middle of the street, which seemed to have a door? And windows? And a balcony???? He's not going to question it and instead goes around it towards the direction the mare pointed to earlier. Two, a literal giant gingerbread house, he would also hopefully look more into that later.
After walking a bit more he comes upon what looks like a, a carousel/courthouse thing? It looked kind of like a courthouse at least. He decides that this building looks important enough to be a town hall, so he walks inside.
"Hello?"
Upon saying that he is greeted by a light-brown mare with glasses behind a desk.
"Oh, hello there! What might you happen to be here for, little one?"
"Oh, um, is this like a town hall or something?"
"Why yes it is!"
"Oh, good. How do I buy a house or something?"
"Excuse me? Dear, where are your parents? I'm a very busy mare."
"My parents are kind of... away right now. They dropped me off at this town and gave me a bunch of bits and said to find somewhere to stay."
"They... they left you all by yourself?"
"They said I was trustworthy enough to find my own place."
"Uh, well alright then I guess, what have you come to ask about again?"
"If I can buy a house or something."
"I doubt you have enough bits to buy an entire house little one."
"Wanna bet?"
"Wha-"
Before she can say anything, Twisted had approached her desk and was now dumping the contents of his saddlebags onto her desk. After about a couple minutes of a continuous flow of bits she decided she had seen enough.
"Well it seems you are well equipped enough with money. We just need to take care of the paperwork. What is your name, little one?"
"Twisted."
"Last name?"
"Uuuum........ Damascus. Twisted Damascus."
Author's Note
Gilda the STUPID Griffin. GOT EM! DESTROYED!
"Have a wonderful day Mr. Damascus!"
"You too ma'am."
"Oh dear, just call me Ivory."
"I will not do that actually, see ya!"
After the last statement he shits the door to the town hall. That was...... grueling to say the least. He got that paperwork was boring but jeez it was worse than he initially thought. Now.... where did she say the house was? It was "To the left of the library of you are standing in front of it. The mailbox will have the number "271" on it." Seemed easy enough.
As that thought came into his head there was suddenly a blur of pink in front of him.
"HI,INOTICEDYOUWERENEWHEREANDSINCEYOURENEWIWANTTOINVITEYOUTOAPARTYMYNAMEISPINKIEPIEANDALSOWELCOMETOPONYVILLENOWIHAVETOGOPLANAPARTYBYE!"
At the end of that rush of a sentence Twisted is handed a flyer. But before he looks at that though he can't help but wonder what the hell just happened. Was that a pony? How did they move that fast? How did they TALK that fast?
"What the fuck."
He said that more to himself than to anybody around him. Um, she gave him a flyer right? Let's look at that.
It was a simple flyer decorated with illustrations of balloons and confetti. The title read "GILDA'S WELCOME TO PONYVILLE PARTY/ NEE PONY'S WELCOME TO PONYVILLE PARTY! The caption under it read, "Don't be late!"
So, he just got invited to a party apparently? That uh, happened he guesses. He thinks he's gonna go find that house now.
A few minutes of walking later...
It has now just occured to him that he had no idea where the library was. He was yet again going to have to ask somebody. He looks around the area and spots that apple cart he had spotted earlier, the one that was selling apples. He supposed he don't mind something to eat either.
grrrrrr ....
Ah, looks like he REALLY needed something to eat. He had no idea how he was only just realizing. He supposed he could use a few apples.
As he walks to the apple cart he notices the same pony he saw earlier attending it, now that he was closer he could actually make them out, though it was still obvious they were wearing a cowboy hat. The mare had an orange coat and yellow mane, and as he said earlier, donning a cowboy hat. He couldn't make out her cutie mark from here.
"Excuse me."
The mare now only notices your presence and looks down at you.
"Well howdy there little feller! You need somethin'?"
"Yeah. How much are those apples?"
"Why they're only two bits a piece," she says with a smile
"Oh, well I'll take three then."
After saying that he takes 6 bits out of his saddlebag and gives it to the mare. The mare then gives him three apples, which he promptly puts in his saddlebags.
"Say, I don't think I've seen you round these parts before, you new here?"
"Oh, just came here today yeah."
"Oh well that's just swell! If you don't mind me asking, why are you uh... covered in muck?"
"May or may not have fell off of a hill, don't ask."
Upon saying that, her face gains a look of slight suspicion, but after a moment it seems like she brushes it off.
"Well, I'm might sorry about that. You okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine. Oh! Would you happen to know where the library is?"
"Well I sure do! One of ma friends lives there actually. It's just thatta way."
She points to Twisted's left.
"Ma friends name is Twilight Sparkle, why don't you give her a hello since you're new round here?"
"Uh, sure I guess. What's it look like?"
At that she gives a look of amusement.
"Well, it's mighty hard to miss."
"That doesn't really tell me what it looks like ma'am," he gives her a deadpan look.
"Uh, well, it's a giant tree," she says
"Thanks"
Twisted then starts to walk off.
"Partner wait a moment!"
"*sigh*. What?"
"What's your name?"
"Twisted....just Twisted."
"The name's Applejack, but you can call me AJ. Hope to see you around!"
"Ok"
Applejack looks at the little colt walking.away with a curious and slightly shocked look on her face.
"That was mighty bit odd..." she says, watching the colt walk away.
Yet another few minutes of walking later...
So, that tree earlier was actually something of importance. Though he doubted it wasn't considering, y'know, it's a giant fucking tree. Also he was not going to say hi to this "Twilight Sparkle" because frankly, he just wanted a shower. He doubted that the library had a working shower. As he was instructed by the mayor, Ivory or whatever her name was, he went left from the library. After searching for a little while he found the mailbox with the numbers "271" on it, then proceeded to approach the doorway. He couldn't believe it, he had A HOUSE. LIKE HE WAS JUST IN THE FOREST AND NOW HE OWNS A HOUSE . Like, the chances are close to impossible. Like he just happens to find a shitpoad of cash right before he finds a town?!?! The chances are astronomical.
After that whole tirade of him comprehending the ridiculousness of his situation, he opens the door and steps inside. When he steps into the house he is greeted by a tiny hallway. Just a little corner that lead to the living room. Branching off from that was the kitchen. It looked pretty nice overall, though he didn't really care about the layout. The furniture in the room were covered in plastic sheets. Seems like nobody had had the house for a while with the layer of dust covering them.
On the other side of the living room was a staircase, which obviously lead to the upstairs. There were 4 doors in total, one led to a bedroom. One led to a second bedroom, what he assumed was a guest one. Third one led to a room that was actually empty, he guesses that one didn't really have a purpose yet. The fourth and final one lead to, yes! A b a t h r o o m . Oh he was so about to get his shower on.
An hour of "getting his shower on" later...
Unfortunately, he ran out of hot water. What could he say, he enjoyed long showers.
After that, he headed back down to the living room after drying off. He takes the plastic sheet off of the couch and sits down on it. Oh my Faust it was sooooo comfy. He's never getting off this couch. Never. After laying on there for a bit he realized he was still hungry, and it had only gotten worse since he stopped at the apple cart. Speaking of apples, he did still have those.
He then reaches into his saddlebags and pulls the three apples out and, huh? Oh right, the pink blur lady, what was it, "Cream Pie" or something. She was talking a little fast...... ok, a LOT fast. It was only about 15 minutes from now actually. He tosses the thought out of his head for a minute while he finishes eating the apples. He takes the plastic sheet off of the coffee table and places the spent apple cores on it.
Oh right, the party thing. It was a welcome party or something. Sheesh, did they do this for everybody that visited the town? He can't imagine having to pay for all that. Though they did make a party just for him and some lady named "Gilda" so he assumed it would be rude not to go. Where did this thing say it was? Located at "Sugarcube Corner" with a picture of a weirdly proportioned gingerbread house on the back. Oh wait! He's seen that before, he still had to see whether it was made out of real ginger bread or not though...
Well now there's only about 10 minutes left until the party so he supposes he better get going.
Yet ANOTHER time skip later MWAHAHAHA (about 10 minutes or so)
He has arrived, and even the front door looked like it was made of gingerbread. He would take a bite but the door was already opened and there were other ponies inside. He would have to taste test later.
"Hi new pony!"
Aaaaand the blur was back, this time she was less of a blur though thank Faust. Now that he could actually see her, well she was just all pink. Light pink coat, dark pink hair, the only things that weren't pink were her baby blue eyes and cutie mark with three balloons on it, what he assumed meant partying or something.
"Uh, hi."
"Well? No need to be shy! Step right in!"
As Twisted stepped into the room he could a few ponies he'd seen before, there was Applejack talking with some fancy mare with a white coat and quite noticable purple hair. There was the yellow and pink pegasus that the griffin had shouted at earlier, talking with a, wow, that lady was really purple. It was a unicorn with a light purple coat and dark purple hair with a streak of what looked like hot pink through it, including her tail.
Sadly he didn't recognize anyone else at the party though, so he kind of just wandered off into a corner and browsed through the snacks. While doing that and totally not eavesdropping in on other ponies conversations he could hear the yellow and purple one talking to each other.
"You've met Gilda right?" the purple one said, "What's she like?"
Gilda? On yeah, that was on the poster too.
"Oh, um, well, I'll tell you later, Twilight."
Wait.... Twilight, Twilight Sparkle? Yeah Applejack said to talk to her. Well trust me he totally would but she was preoccupied talking with somebody else right now. Nothing he could do about it.
When he looks away from the snack table he sees, oh Faust, it was the griffin again. He really hoped that little encounter earlier didn't come back to bite him now. The griffin exchanges words with uh, what should he call her, he'll call her blur he guesses, it was better than Pie. Once their conversation is done they shake hooves/claws, or at least attempt to. After the griffin touches the blur's hoof, she reels back in, quite literally, shock. He thought something was seriously wrong for a second until blur had revealed that she had a joy buzzer in her hoof.
After that, a, what the fuck. That is the most colorful pony he has ever seen. The lady had a light blue coat, and a literal rainbow mane and tail. He didn't really look at her cutie mark at that moment since he was just go smacked at how insanely colorful she was. She and the griffin exchanges words, they actually seemed to be friends. He decides he's had enough eavesdropping and leaves them for the punch bowl. Until all of a sudden he is pulled aside by a pink hoof.
"Everypony! I'd like you all to meet Gilda and- what's your name?"
"Wait when did I get here. Oh! Uh, Twisted."
"And Twisted! Gilda here is a long time friend of Rainbow Dash's, and Twisted has just moved in. Let's give them all a warm welcome to Ponyville!"
After she says that, all the ponies begin to cheer. After that dies down, she leads us both to a dining table. Wait a minute, that was Gilda? Well the name does surprisingly fit actually. His train of thought is interuppted by blur telling them to "help themselves".
"Lemon Vanilla Drops. Don't mind if I do."
After that, Gilda walks to the table, takes one of the drops, and pops it into her mouth. Upon doing that her face suddenly scrunches up and gets red.
"HOT!"
The colorful pony from earlier shout at her.
"G! The punch!" she says while pointing towards the punch bowl.
Gilda rushes over to the punch bowl and immediately tries to guzzle down one of the glasses of punch. The liquid did not reach her mouth however, instead it dribbled straight onto her chest. After the whole thing the ponies at the party laughed and Gilda seemed to be slightly embarrassed. Served her right he thinks.
"Well, waddya know, pepper in the vanilla lemon drops, and the punch served in a dribble glass!" the blur proceeds to say
"Ha! Priceless! Priceless!" the rainbow one says
Gilda then gulps down the cup of punch next to the other one and gasps.
"Yeah, hilarious ."
What went on after that a couple of more pranks being pulled on her throughout the party. There was a box of those snake things that jumped out of cans and relighting candles on the birthday cake.
After those two pranks had occured it was the for a party game: pin the tail on the pony. Usually you would walk forward, take your best guess at where the back of the pony was, and pin the tails to see how close you got. This was not what happened however, as the blur was turning Gilda around so she could pint the tail. She instead went the opposite direction claiming the blur was trying to prank her. Instead of getting to the poster however, she ended up crashing into a bunch of stuff and falling over. When she got up however, she proceeded to have an outburst.
"This is your idea of a good time? I've never met a lamer bunch of dweebs in all my life! And Pinkie Pie, you! You are queen lame-o with your weak little party pranks! Did you really think you could make me lose my cool? Well, Dash and I have ten times as much cool as the rest of you put together! Come on Dash, we're bailing on this pathetic scene."
The rainbow one, who I presumed was the "Dash" she was referring to, answered her.
"You know Gilda, I was the one who set up those party pranks. So I guess I'm the queen lame-o huh?"
"Dash, c'mon, you're joshing me right?"
"They weren't even all meant for you specifically, it was just dumb luck that you set them all off."
"No way! I-it was Pinkie Pie! She set up this party to make a fool out of me!" Gilda said, now getting noticably more nervous.
"Me?" the mare who I finally knew as Pinkie Pie said stepping in, "I threw this party to improve your attitude. I thought a good party might turn that frown upside-down!"
"And you sure didn't need help making a fool of yourself." said Dash, speaking up again "You know, this is not how I thought my old friends would treat my new friends. If being cool is all you care about, maybe you should go find some new cool friends someplace else."
"Well- yeah? Well you, you... you are such a, a flip-flop, cool one minute and lame the next. When you decide not to be lame anymore, gimme a call," Gilda says as she goes out the door and flies away.
"Um, that was awkward," somepony said aloud.
Dash then proceeds to step in front of the crowd.
"I'm sorry everypony, for bringing Gilda here. I didn't know how rude she was. And Pinkie Pie, I'm really sorry she ruined that awesome party you put on for her."
"Hey! If you want to hang out with party-poopers that's your business," Pinkie says.
"Well, if it's no problem. I'd rather hang out with you. No hard feelings?"
"No hard feelings."
"This is till kind of awkward," Twisted says aloud.
Everypony just kind of shrugs off what he says.
After that, Twilight walks up to Pinkie Pie and says a few words to her. He didn't really hear what they said but Pinkie Pie tells everypony that there was still "a whole lotta party to finish".
Soon enough everypony is going back to what they were doing. Including Twisted, who was going to back to totally not eavesdropping on ponies at the snack table. Sadly nobody had anything interesting to say. So he decided he was gonna get him a slice of that cake. Sadly he was interuppted by somebody approaching him.
"So, you're new here?"
Upon turning around he discovered a, what the fuck is that. Is that, like, a lizard.
"Uh, yeah. If you don't mind me asking, are you like, a lizard?"
"Nope! I'm a dragon!" the dragon guy says, putting his fist on his chest.
"There is no way in Tartarus you're a dragon. Like, aren't they supposed to be like, huge?"
"Well, I'm just a young one, I haven't been around that long yet. Once I grow up through I'm gonna be the biggest and fiercest dragon of all time!"
"Arent y'all supposed to be like, enemies against ponies or some shit?"
"Whoa! Geez buddy watch your language! But yeah most of us are. I was just raised around ponies. Twilight hatched me out of an egg."
"Twilight as in, Twilight Sparkle right?"
"You know her?"
"No, somebody named Applejack said I should visit her or something."
"AJ told you? Hm, well if you ever want to stop by or anything we live at the library "
"Wait, live?"
"Yeah!" the dragon said
"That's uh... why?"
"Twilight really likes books," the dragon says with a deadpan
"Nothing wrong with books."
"Well no, but she can get a little obsessed sometimes."
"Um... ok. Is there anything else I should know about?"
"Well, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow dash occasionally pull pranks around town, so watch out for that I guess. Besides that I don't really think anything else."
"Ok, cool."
After that they both kind of just stand around in awkward silence, until thankfully, somebody arrives to save the day. Though he could have done without the spontaneous nature of it.
"Hi!"
All of the sudden once again there she is again, the blur, somehow in front of him in a split second. Just between me and you I'm pretty sure he almost punched her in the face judging by the way his hoof suddenly flinched backwards.
"Could you like, not do that?"
"Do what?"
"The uh, the suddenly appear in front of me thing."
He is suddenly interrupted by Spike.
"That's one of her things man, you're gonna have to get use to it."
All he received in response was Twisted looking at him for a long moment, then slowly looking back at Pinkie Pie with a deadpan look.
"What do you want?"
"Well you are the guest of honor. I thought you might want to do some party games!"
"If it's anything like what happened earlier than I dont think I want to."
"Oh dont worry, I'm pretty sure mean ol' Gilda set off all the pranks."
"Pretty sure?"
"O K well maybe not all of them. Dashy doesnt usually go lightly on the pranks."
"Who? Oh yeah, the colorful one. If she's setting up things like that I'm hesitant to even touch the floor."
"Hmmmm, be right back!"
"Wha-"
And then she was gone in the blink of an eye. A quick look around the room and he could see that she was talking to Dash. After a few words are exchanged Dash looks at him for a moment, then looks back and keeps talking to Pinkie Pie. He thinks it couldn't have been more obvious they were talking about him. After a minute Pinkie Pie zooms back over to him.
"Ok! Dashie says that were no more left, so you should be fine."
Looking back at Dash, Twisted can see her silently giggling to herself. Upon looking back at him though, she acts like she wasn't doing anything literally a few seconds ago. He just gives her a deadpan look.
"Ok I dont know if you just don't see her silently giggling to herself over there or if you're just in on it, but frankly I just don't believe that."
After hearing that she looks to Dash, then looks back at Twisted.
"She doesn't look like she's doing it to me."
"B-because she- oh nevermind."
"I'll play if the game wasnt already set up beforehand. Like not something that was already here at the beginning of the party."
"I can do that!"
While she was doing that, Twisted was finally going to get a slice of that glorious cake. He gets a slice of the cake, puts it on a paper plate, and sits down at the nearest table. Now he was finally going to- oh COME ON. IT WAS CHOCALATE. Listen, it's not that hale doesn't like chocolate. He just didnt like it in a cake.
"*sigh*"
Back to the snack table he presumes. On the way there he puts the plate onto the snack table to look like it was supposed to be picked up. He didn't want to be wasteful of course.
By the time he's at the snack table Pinkie Pie was already back and in his face again. Of course.
"I JUST GOT THE BEST IDEA!"
"Please don't yell in my ears."
"Sorry, but I just got the bestest most fantastical idea!"
"What's the idea Pinkie Pie," he says in the most monotone voice he can muster.
"charades.... "
"That's, fine actually."
"Yay!"
After that Pinkie turns around and acknowledges everybody in the room.
"Everypony listen up! We're going to be playing charades!"
"That sounds fun," he hears from somebody in the crowd. Also, somepony ? Ponies actually say that, I mean, there was a dragon in here too. Maybe he just hasn't been keeping up with the trends lately considering he's been in a forest for a year and a half.
One game of charades later...
I'm too lazy to write the whole thing
"Why did nobody except one get the cockatrice? Like I even pulled you up there for it."
The one he is talking to is the dragon, Spike, he met earlier.
"Dude, most ponies probably don't even know what a cockatrice is ."
Upon hearing this Twisted gets a perplexed look on his face.
"They literally turn people to stone . How do you not?"
"They what?"
"Wh- c'mon man. How did only a single pony get it."
"Well, Fluttershy is kind of an animal expert."
"It shouldn't matter if you're an animal expert. They turn you to stone . How is that not noteworthy?"
Spike just shrugs. Twisted yet again gets a deadpan look on his face. Suddenly he hears a voice.
"Spike!"
Upon hearing this Spike turns around and is greeted by Twilight.
"It's getting pretty late, we should start heading home."
"But Twiiilight , it's a party! Can't we just stay a little longer?"
"Well..."
Twilight looks at the clock on the wall.
"Ten or fifteen minutes should be fine, but after that I don't want to hear any complaining."
"Sweet! Oh, Twilight! This is Twisted!"
"Oh, hi! That was quite the show you put on earlier."
Twisted, still with a deadpan look, responds.
"It's a cockatrice, how else was I supposed to show it?"
"Um, I don't know actually."
"I'm surprised you of all ponies didn't get it. You are a librarian aren't you?"
Hearing this, Twilight gets a distressed look on her face.
"Oh my Celestia you're right! I should know this! Spike! I'm going back to the library, I expect you to be back when I said! I think I'm slacking off on my studies!"
After she says that, there is a sudden *pop* and a flash of light, Twisted assumes she teleported out of the room.
"It- it wasn't that serious jeez."
"Told you she could get obsessive," Spike chimes back in.
"Shut up."
10-15 minutes later...
"See ya later Twisted!"
"Maybe!" he replies back
After a few more "welcome to ponyville's" along with a quiet one from the "Fluttershy" mentioned earlier he leaves the party and goes to his newly acquired home. He has no complaints about it, it was roomy and, y'know, it had a bed. It was a huge improvement from the forest.
Speaking of that bed, he didnt know if it was because he hadn't slept on one in the longest time but it was comfortable as shiiit. He cant help but think about before, before he went to this town, before he went to that forest. He knew he dreamed, he just never remembered it. He was glad that he didn't though.
Because most likely,
They're all nightmares
Author's Note
Biggest one so far, forgive me if there are grammar mistakes.
Luna: Encounter The Dreamer Again
The door was there again. She's tried spells of all kinds, she sometimes even poured her own magic into it to see if it would have an effect. Nothing. It was getting quite frustrating. Sure there were difficult ones to get into sometimes, but there was never one she couldn't even open .
It was right there . It was so close yet so far away. She couldn't possibly imagine the emotional barriers they must have to even block her out. She just didn't understand it.
The door was a simple oak one, the kind you would see on a normal house. That in itself was noteworthy because usually it was unique to each pony. It was just... plain . It was decorated with chains, with locks ranging from padlocks to simple key ones you would see in a door or chest.
"*sigh*"
She would let it go tonight, but by the night itself she would find a way to get in.
Author's Note
Made this one basically for filler, another chapter coming at you shortly.
He couldn't move. Usually when you would hear somebody say that it was because they were stuck or something. He was completely free to move in actuality. He just didn't want to. Like it was a bed. It was much more comfortable then a makeshift one made of leaves or that one pet bed thing that he slept in inside the castle.
Why should he get up, he asked himself. He could just... stay here. He stayed in bed for at least an hour deliberating that question, but thought better of it. He wished he didn't get up so early, he used to sleep in. His instincts still remained in that forest though. So he did the thing he had been fighting to do ever since he got up, well, he physically got up. He supposed he needed to eat anyway.
Fridges. Extremely useful for storing food, useless if you don't have any. I guess it was a bit dumb of him to assume there would already been some in it. He supposes he would have to do some shopping. He was going to dread relearning how to cook things.
Well he was going to try and figure out what he should take with him, but the only thing he had was saddlebags filled a shit ton of bits, ten or something cockatrice scales, and, oh, he forgot about the last thing. The mystery of the shrinking claymore. He couldn't begin to fathom as to how somebody would even do that. He'd worry about the chainblade-claymore thing later. He needed to do some shopping.
Out the door he learned that the streets were surprisingly barren. What time was it anyway?
Looking up at the sun he could determine it was probably somewhere between 7:30 to 8:00. He guessed most of the ponies werent early risers. He wasn't really arguing though. He just hoped the market was open.
Wait, he didn't know where the market was. Does he seriously need to ask for directions again? Most ponies probably weren't up either. The library was pretty much just in front of him. Maybe they could help, if they were even there that was. He doubted the library was even open at this time. He walks over anyway, it was worth a shot he guesses.
*knock knock knock*
What followed a few seconds after was what Twisted would describe as a "thud" and a "crash". Afterwards he heard the sound of hoofsteps approaching the door. The door opens and he is greeted by none other than Twilight Sparkle, who either just got up or just didn't care to fix her hair.
"WHAT!" she answers, looking grouchy as ever.
Upon looking down at Twisted her face immediately softens.
"Rough night?" he asks
"You could say that... What do you want?"
"Do you know where the market is? I don't even know if it opens this early."
"Well it's just that way," Twilight points to her left, "but they don't open up for another hour and a half."
"Damn.......... this is a library right?"
"Yeah???"
"Is it open?"
"Well now I guess it might as well should be," she gives Twisted a quick glare, after which her gaze softens. "I'm sorry, I just didn't really sleep last night."
"You got insomnia or some shit?"
Hearing this her face is immediately shocked.
"Language!"
"Wha? Oh. Sorry I only just got up. Excuse the mouth please. Still do you have insomnia though?"
"No it's just, *sigh*. After what you said about the cockatrice at the party I realized I was lacking on my studies."
"For what? Aren't you a librarian, or are you doing that thing where you have a job but you also go to college?"
"I'm a Princess Celestia's student."
"................ I'm sorry? Celestia? THE Celestia?"
"Yep!"
"Listen Purple Smart. Usually when I hear something as outlandish as that I don't believe them until I see it for myself. Like if you're a student of THE Celestia why aren't you in her castle or something."
"Well, she sent me to ponyville so I could socialize and make friends."
"--_--"
"It's true!"
"Ok whatever, just, can I come in?" Twisted says, trying to go back to the original subject.
"Why?"
"It's a library. I would like to actually use it."
"Oh! We never usually get many foals wanting to actually read!"
"Well I'm not many foals," Twisted says, to which he immediately visibly cringes, "Faust that was so cliche. Wow I hated that I actually said that. Whatever, can I come in?"
"Yeah come on in."
This was uh, interesting to say the least. Faust what were those shelves? The were literally inside the wall. I mean it fit considering they were in a tree but he would at least make it look like a normal shelf. In the front of the room they're was a set of stairs leading up to what he assumed was the second floor. On the wall next to the stairs there was a doorway leading to what looked like just another section of library. There was a podium that lied in the middle of the room, on top was a plant carved into the head of a pony with a weird mohawk looking mane.
As he was looking around, Twilight asks him a question.
"Do your parents know your out this early?"
"My parents aren't here."
Twilight dons a look of confusion.
"Huh?"
"They're like these "big shot" explorers so they don't really come home often. They wanted me to move to a different town so they left me a bunch of bits so I could buy a house, food, etc."
"Um, they just left you by yourself?"
"They trusted me not to get into any trouble."
Hearing this Twilight goes silent for a moment, then she speaks up again.
"What if you run out of money?"
"I won't. The travels pay off quite
"Oh yeah. Well if you have any questions just come find me, I'll be upstairs."
Twilight goes back up the stairs. Twisted doesn't know why, but he could feel her suspicion. It didn't matter, it's not like she could call him out anyway. She didn't have a reason to.
Twisted shrugs and starts browsing the library. From looking at the genres of books he could determine the sections. He just has to figure out what he feels like reading. Daring Do? No, he wasn't feeling quite adventurous right now. He would just look around he guesses.
After a bit of browsing he finds something that interests him: "The Basics of Magic". He's always wondered about magic, how it works. He knew all ponies had magic, they just had it in different ways. Pegasi could manipulate the weather/interact with clouds, earth ponies had enhanced strength and could sense things in the earth and manipulate it, unicorns could do, well everything plus more. It was kind of unfair how much shit they could do actually.
He picks up the book and places it onto a desk in the secondary room. He drags a stool from another place in the room, sits down, and begins reading. Or tries to anyway.
Suddenly he hears a "woooah" and multiple thuds and crashes. He thinks that was Spike's voice actually! Well he did say he lived here. He may as well go check it out.
Even before he walks into the main room he sees Spike face-first into the floor. He was just about to go over and help him when he hears Twilight.
"Spike!" Twilight says distressingly.
Twilight rushes down the stairs to where Spike is laying.
"Are you okay?!"
Twilight levitates him with her magic and puts him standing straight.
"Yeah I'm fine. Nothing can keep this dragon down for long!"
"Except a concussion! You have to watch where you step, I just got the stairs furnished. I told you this yesterday!"
"Sorry Twi, guess I forgot."
Spike scratches the back of his head in mental. He then looks over and sees Twisted.
"Twisted? What are you doing here?"
"I get up early."
"I- okay? Why are you here ?"
"Reading."
"--_--"
Spike starts moving towards the kitchen.
"Okay. Twilight I'm gonna start making breakfast. You want anything specific?"
"Just the usual."
GRRRRRRRRR
Everyone stops what they're doing and looks around.
"What was that?" Twilight asks.
"I was going to the market for a reason."
"You didn't eat breakfast?"
"There was nothing to make breakfast with. I literally just got the house."
"Well..... you can eat what Spike is making."
"Yeah dude it's fine," Spike chimes in.
"What? Why???"
"What do you mean "why"?" Spike says.
"I have literally only been here a singular day and you want to let me eat breakfast here," Twisted says suspiciously.
"Because that's the nice thing to do? It's really not that big of a deal dude."
"............... Thanks. I guess."
"You're welcome???" Spike says, confused as ever.
Spike finishes talking and walks upstairs to the kitchen to cook breakfast. Twisted starts to walk off back into the room he was just about to read in. Twilight is just raising an eyebrow regarding the encounter that just happened.
He needed to stop being so skeptical. This was a nice twin, with nice ponies. Nothing more.
.......... Presumably nice ponies anyway. Twisted picks up the book and starts reading. He needed to get his mind off this.
15 minutes later...
The book was finished. It was only a 200 pager. No big deal. He may have to read through it again later though. This was some pretty interesting shit.
He looks back up at the clock. Sheesh. 15 minutes? Usually he'd get 10 for these. He was getting out of practice. He Hope's he'll be back to his regular time soon.
"Hey."
Twisted looks back at the doorway, it was Twilight.
"Breakfast is ready."
"Oh. Swag. It's upstairs right?"
"Yeah. Just follow me."
Twisted and Twilight walk up the stairs towards the kitchen.
"You have any books like the one I just read?"
"Like non-fiction or educational."
"I mean like, books about magic, how it works, how it's used, etc."
"I can show you after breakfast if you want."
"That'd be cool. Thanks."
"No problem!"
They arrive at the kitchen. It wasn't what he expected from so-called "Princess Celstia's student" and a dragon. It was basic. He could understand why they didn't bother to decorate it though. There was a table with two chairs in the middle. Spike looked to be setting it with plates and forks.
"Sorry it took so long," Spike says, "May or may not have dropped the first plates I made."
Spike regretfully looks over at the trash can for a second.
"It's just eggs and hay bacon, nothing special. Dig in."
"Thanks Spike," Twilight says.
"Nothing less from me!"
Spike sits down at the table, Twilight sits down a few moments after.
"Um..."
They both look over at Twisted.
"Where am I supposed to sit?"
"Huh?" Spike says
Twilight and Spike both look at the other end of the table and see they are lacking a chair.
"Oh!"
Twilight face-hoofs.
"Spike. Could you go get a chair from one of the other rooms please?"
"On it!" Spike replies back.
Spike runs off out of the kitchen to, well, somewhere.
"Sorry about that, we usually don't have guests," Twilight says.
"It's fine,"
Twisted shrugs.
"Couldn't you just teleport one in here or something?"
Twilight goes quiet, and after a moment, face-hoofs again. Spike comes back into the room, holding a normal dining chair.
"Got it!" he says, a bit out of breath.
Spike goes past Twisted and puts the rearranges the chair so they are sitting evenly apart.
"There we go!" he says.
"Nice," Twisted says as he walks over to the table.
He sits down and begins a-nommin'. As you would usually do if there's a plate of food in front of you.
"Oh, um," Twisted says halfway through the meal, "Back to the question earlier. Adding to what I said earlier, those books, is there one of those big ones on the subject that, like, all the little ones packed into one."
"I think there's one like that in there somewhere. Though I think you should rather take it separately than doing it all at once," she says.
"I already got the first one done, I don't really want to have to waste time trying to find every single one separately. It just works for me better that way."
Twisted shrugs.
"What do you mean you already finished it?"
Twilight gets a confused look on her face.
"It was only 200 pages. It doesn't take that long usually. I've been out of practice so it took a little longer, it's usually just ten minutes."
"For 200 pages?????"
"Yeah? How long does it take you?"
"Longer than that! There's no way you read it that fast!"
"But......... I did though."
Twilight's eyebrow twitches slightly.
"Hold on a second."
She teleports away with a "pop!" and comes back a few seconds later. She is levitating the book that Twisted had earlier and slams it onto the table.
"This book?!"
Twisted, slightly startled by the sudden book attack, replies back.
"Fuckin hell! UH, yeah!"
"This book with over 200 pages?!"
"I explained this!" Twisted says starting to lean back in his chair.
"Twilight you're kind of freaking him out," Spike chimes in.
"Hold on Spike."
Twilight gets a smirk on her face.
"If you really read this, then you should know the contents of it, right?"
"Yeah???"
"Well I'm sure you won't mind a little questionarre then..."
"Oh no," Spike says, "this is going to take forever.
Spike puts his claws on his head and lays it down on the table.
And during all of this craziness Twisted just thinks to himself,
"What the fuck is even happening."
Author's Note
Yeah so some shit is happening. Updates will be less frequent. Sorry y'all!
Wait, shit. He was doing it again.
............."*sigh*"
He was letting his emotions get the better of him. It's been happening more and more the longer he stays in this forest. He gets that probably most ponies in his situation would so the same, but this was life or death out here. He's been out here long enough to know when he's making a mistake.
So, his options are: stay here for possibly a few more nights and search the building, or leave and make more ground.
So, leaving. If he left he had the possibility of making it out of the forest or possibly find food/water. He highly doubted that he would make it out of the forest anytime soon judging by how long he's been here. The other option was staying for a few nights, exploring the castle to see whether there were any more things like the ones he just got.
He needed to think about this.
Ten minutes of INTENSE thinking later...
Well maybe his emotions were getting the better of him, because he was going to leave. The possibility of getting out of this forest quite strongly outweighed finding more goodies in a probably haunted castle. All he had to do was find the front door.
After a couple of minutes he found the front door of the castle, still looking just as old as the rest of the castle. Naturally he wasn't going to be able to open that one by hoof either and there were no visible holes around it so he went to the back door and went around the castle.
Upon arriving at the front of the castle he was greeted by the most cliche thing he had seen in his life, a rope bridge. Of course it was in front of a castle, of course it was. Regardless he had to get across it.
First step onto the thing and he could already feel it's age. There was three things he didn't like, heights were one of them, though he wasn't y'know, deathly afraid. The other two, well he doesn't like to talk about the other two. He takes a second step onto it and already he was afraid the thing was going to collapse under him. Then he took a third, forth, fifth, sixth, and so on on somewhere around the tenth he heard one of the steps crack under him. So naturally he stepped over that one. There was a few more on the bridge that definitely weren't walk-on-able so he just stepped over those. Until finally, he was on the other side.
Welp, let's get to a-walking.
Author's Note
Little short one today
