Prologue: The Mountaintop
“So, as you see Mr. Sight, Princess Celestia needs you to come to Canterlot with us as soon as possible,” Twilight finished her monologue with an encouraging smile. Rainbow Dash had long since found a cloud to take a nap on, Applejack looked around for her missing hat, Rarity inspected the marble masonry and Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen. Fluttershy was the only one to actually pay attention to any of the long explanation to the white and blue unicorn with the watch glass cutie mark.
“Yes, that would explain why clouds have been turning into orange mist,” said Over Sight bringing a hoof to his jaw. Twilight fought the urge to jump up and down in glee. It seemed like the crocodile infested maze, airship crash and mountain expedition would finally pay off.
“But I already knew everything you just told me,” the mage said off-handedly.
Twilight’s jaw dropped.
“What? You said it yourself: I am the most powerful scryer in all of Equestria,” the unicorn deadpanned.
The lavender mare slowly approached Over Sight, her eyes pinpricks and mane already looking disheveled.
“All… All of that for nothing?” she started softly, her volume building. “Do you even know what we’ve been through? Applejack almost died at least three times, Fluttershy caused a hedgehog revolution and because of Rainbow, we lost an entire night of sleep running from angry Griffons!”
“Yes, because of the pie incident. I know. I’ve been watching,” he said nonchalantly.
Twilight’s eye began twitching. Sensing her friend’s disturbance, Fluttershy quickly and gracefully glided over to the panicking mare.
“It’s alright, at least nopony got hurt,” Fluttershy whispered as Rarity joined the conversation.
“Mr. Sight, it seems we must have made a grievous miscalculation of your abilities. If you knew about this problem, why haven’t you already come to Canterlot with your Orb?” the white mare coolly inquired. With Twilight approaching a nervous breakdown, it was up to Rarity to keep calm. Besides, she had to abandon her fainting couch or that poor colt would have been a dragon’s breakfast.
“Yeah, Ah’d say that was pretty darn mean of you to make us go through all that. Why didja do it then?” the farmpony said with annoyance, temporarily abandoning her hat finding quest.
Over Sight just stared at the mares for a full minute, his face contorted in an are-you-bucking-serious look.
Every bloody time. No matter how many times I explain it, someponies still mess it up.
Sighing and bringing a hoof to his face, the master scryer began his tired explanation.
“Okay, I see the PRESENT. I can’t see the future. I literally have no idea what happens in the future. I can give pretty good predictions, since I can see a lot of things in the present, but there was no way I could predict what happened before it did. And, for your information, I was in fact working on the solution as soon as I noticed something was wrong. Did you know it takes 101 days for a draconic ruby to mature into something suitable for making an Orb of Adsorption? Anyway, I still can’t believe you came all the way here just to tell me what I already knew.”
He shrugged and turned back towards his writing desk, levitating a sheaf of papers towards the group.
“Since we have some time to kill, I might as well share this with you.”
Still in shock, Twilight levitated the papers and began reading them.
“Is… Is this us? I’m a little confused…” Twilight said, scanning the pages briefly. One page caught her eye and caused her to blush.
“Wow, I never suspected Pinkie Pie was…” she mumbled before Rarity snatched the page up.
“Oh… Oh my…” the fashionista began before realizing the underlying implication.
“Wait, so these are stories you wrote about us? This is quite… disturbing. Why would you even contemplate such thing? And I most certainly would not say this!” Rarity pointed out with her hoof.
Over Sight simply shrugged and replied.
“Look, it gets really, really boring on this mountaintop. So, I occasionally sp-, er, observe certain ponies and write amusing stories about them. And since you actually came up here, I’ll share them with you. So, gather ‘round and sit tight, because we’ve got about a couple dozen of these bad boys to go through.”
Over Sight began levitating pillowed to all the ponies as he took a seat.
“You… You’re serious, aren’t you?” asked Twilight incredulously.
The unicorn stallion simply nodded.
“You’re not going with us until you finish, are you?”
Over Sight gave another simple nod.
Twilight let out a sigh of resignation as she sat down.
“Let’s get this over with, then,” Rarity rolled her eyes and muttered as she sat down. How dare he peep in their live like this and write strange fiction about them. She should have protested more, but after all she had been through, she was far too tired to care.
“What are you talking about?! This sounds superamazingfun!” a familiar hyperactive voice called from right behind Applejack.
“Gah! What in tarnation?! Pinkie! Why are you wearin’ ma hat?”
“Because you really like your hat and when you lost it you were super sad and I thought to myself, Pinkie, you need to find Applejack’s hat so that way she can stop being sad and starting smiling her Apple smiles and then I thought about when you cut apple slices once and bit down on it so that the skin was outside your teeth and it looked like a smile made of apple and I thought that’s what Applejack must think about when she smiles and then I thought, no Pinkie, you need to stay on track and find that hat!” Pinkie said in one breath.
“Well, thank ya kindly, sugarcube. That was real nice of you to do,” Applejack smiled, taking back her hat and returning it to its rightful place.
“Although, I still cain’t figure out how I lost ya,” she muttered, looking up at her brim.
The five mares took their seats in a circle with their host opposite Twilight. Fluttershy turned to her purple companion and meekly asked if Rainbow Dash should be awoken.
“Good point Fluttershy,” Twilight said in a mock-happy tone, “If we have to suffer through this, then so does she. Rainbow! Rainbow Dash, wake up and get over here! It’s storytime!”
The winged napper suddenly bolted upright.
“Story? Like an adventure story?” she asked hopefully, not picking up on the annoyed tension from her friends.
“Some of them are,” replied the master stalker, “Come, have a seat, and we’ll get started.”
Rainbow did a quick loop and landed next to Fluttershy.
“Alright! This is gonna be awesome, right guys?”
“…”
“Right?”
Random Pony Tales
Ch. 1
Characters: Octavia, RD, Zecora, TS
Tags: Adventure, Sad, Romance
Prompt: High Profile Event
Start 21:20
End: 22:28
“Wow Twilight, I can’t believe you managed to get three tickets to the Fillyharmonic!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Twilight blushed at her friend’s enthusiasm. Who would have thought that the brash racer would actually like something so refined as an orchestral performance?
“Oh, Rainbow, it’s no problem,” Twilight said humbly. She still was confused by the invitation herself, as it came from the first chair cellist, Octavia. She had occasionally conversed with the refined mare at previous Galas and events in Canterlot, but she never really got to know her.
I guess being the student of the Princess comes with some perks.
“Twilight, that’s like me scoring tickets to a Wonderbolts race… from Spitfire. Anyway, if you don’t want to tell me what you had to do to get those tickets, I’ll understand.”
Twilight was about to respond when she decided to let it drop. Instead she turned to her zebra companion.
“Zecora, I’m so glad you decided to come to Canterlot with us. I know it’s a lot different than the Everfree,” the lavender unicorn said.
Zecora simply smiled and nodded. Twilight hoped that this performance would take the herbalist’s mind off her crippling laryngitis.
The train they were riding rounded a mountain and Canterlot’s nightlife could be seen in the distance. Zecora’s eyes went wide as she took in the magnificent view. She had seen Canterlot from a far, but to be this close was breathtaking. She also hoped that some of the more interesting herbal shops would still be open this late as she had heard that city ponies tended to stay up late. This was going to be an interesting night, she was sure.
*****
“All right everypony, curtains rise in 20 minutes. Warm up begins in five.”
Octavia barely paid attention to the conductor’s voice as a certain lavender scholar currently occupied her thoughts. She went through the motions of setting up her cello with practiced ease as she continued to daydream.
And she’s finally going to be here tonight! Even if she did bring some friends.
Octavia had sent the ticket a month ago and received a prompt reply. After sending six more tickets and receiving four back, it seemed like Twilight had finalized her plans for coming to the concert. The cellist was worried that Twilight would not remember her, but instead she recalled several details of their conversations in the past. Octavia only remembered those conversations so intimately because they were with the object of her affection, so Twilight clearly must be interested.
“Tavi, you ready?”
Octavia remembered back to the day she saw the Princess’s protégé for the first time.
It was at the Grand Galloping Gala and I was a playing in one of the quartets in a side room. I had just finished my piece when I saw her. Purple flank with the starburst exploding out like an invitation; that sweeping tail with the off-center pink stripe. She turned around and there I saw not the snobbery or aloofness of the Canterlot elite, but the bright-eyed inquisitiveness of a scholar. She was chatting up some older unicorn, probably a magician, and then promptly went to a corner and began reading a book, heedless of her surroundings. She looked so calm and relaxed, even though she was in a crowd of ponies and clearly didn’t care for hobnobbing with any of them. Sweet Celestia, what I would do to that horn of hers…
“Octavia!”
“Blurhr?” Octavia grunted as she was kicked out of her reverie. It was only then she realized the rest of the orchestra was waiting on her to start warming up. She blushed and began to draw her bow across the cello’s strings.
*****
“And I just can’t wait until the after party where Spitfire will be. She won’t be mobbed by her fans like at the gala, so I’ll be able to finally talk to her!” Rainbow said excitedly.
Ah, so that’s the reason why she wanted to come. Twilight figured out.
The group was making their way through the main thoroughfare, when Twilight felt a strange itch on the back of her neck. She craned her neck and the quickly swiveled around, eyes searching for something.
“Rainbow! Where’s Zecora?” Twilight said worriedly.
“Uh, wasn’t she with you?” The pegasus asked skeptically.
“She was here a minute ago, where could she have gone?! Oh no, she’s going to get lost in the city and she won’t know who to talk to, but she can’t even talk to anypony even if she knew somepony and…”
“Twilight! Stop it! Look, she couldn’t have gotten far. I’m sure she was with us a minute ago. Let’s just calm down and look around. She’s probably fine.” Rainbow calmly replied, hoping her friend was take her lead.
“But what if she’s not? What if she…”
“Then we’ll figure it out from there. Come on.”
Twilight let out a sigh and closed her eyes. When she reopened them, she looked calmer.
“You’re right. Freaking out won’t help find her sooner. Okay, Rainbow, take to the skies and see if you can spot her from a distance. I know it’s night outside and she partially blends in, but maybe you can spot her. I’ll start retaking my path and looking around from there. Ask around if anypony has seen a Zebra. I’m sure that she’s pretty rare, even in a city like Canterlot.” Twilight’s determination had calmed Rainbow’s worries. That was her Twilight, always planning and organizing.
The pair split up after agreeing to meet at Carneighgie Hall in one hour to regroup. They would miss the start of the show, or even the whole thing, but their friend was far more important then whatever awaited them at the Fillyharmonic.
