Chronicles of Equestria I: The Tome, the Stranger and the Book Club

by Ictiv

Rating: teen
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Character, Slice of Life
Length: 56463

Twilight wishes to get into something new. Coincidentally she runs into a VERY uncommon figure.

Twilight Sparkle wishes to open a book club, to help her friends and neighbours appreciate the beauty of the written word. Unexpectedly, she meets a stallion of a very curious origin.

How can this strange new unicorn associate with Equestria?

(Time frame: Around a month after "The Secret of my Excess", in the fall.)

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Twilight comes to regret how most of her friends and neighbors don't share her love for books and thinks to remedy this by creating a Book Club so she can share her love of Literature with them.

Coincidentally, while making preparations, she meets a stallion of very odd origins. This stallion poseses a book filled with countless spells he claims authorship of but something is very off...

"There is an order to everything in Equestria." But who ever this is seems to fall out of that order. What should Twilight do here? In fact what could she do here?

Published 2012-01-02 01:42:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-04-26 01:47:37 UTC

The Strangest of Strangers

Canterlot shrunk behind Twilight as she made her way back to Ponyville. She just granted safe passage through the gates of a strange ruin to Crystal Mane - the instinctive, fictional detective protagonist of her riddle book - when she heard something that made her drop the book and hug the ground. Despite the pristine, clear sky she heard the roaring sound of thunder and instantly a beam of lightning crossed the sky, but horizontally.

'This can't be the pegasi's work.' she thought to herself, as she carefully stood up. 'There are no storm clouds to release lightning bolts from, anywhere near.' It didn't take long for the sky above her to correct this negligence on its part and from seemingly nothing, a swirling gray cloud appeared where the lightning struck, over six dozen feet above her somewhere. 'This can not be good.' The unicorn quickly lifted the riddle book from the ground and placed it back in her bag, then turned towards the unnatural cloud formation, ready to do anything if necessary.

The cloud quickly found a comfortable size and kept swirling fast, without any explainable reason. Twilight started running through spells in her mind that could summon or banish such a strange phenomenon. Soon the cloud started flashing with unnatural, silent bolts of lightning running across it, not once touching the ground. She started to hear a gentle, pulsating buzzing sound coming from it, but had no idea what it could be. One thing was certain though: It stated to slowly get louder and louder.

Fearing that this - whatever 'this' may be - will do something drastic and destructive, Twilight prepared to cast her fail-safe spell; hoping that this time, it's not caused by a creature of god like powers who wishes to spread chaos.

'YES!' yelled a stallion's voice suddenly. The unicorn lost her concentration in surprise and looked all around to see who this could be. 'I'VE DONE IT! IT WORKED!' the voice continued, then burst into laughter. The purple pony was shocked to realize: it was coming from the cloud! She watched the cloud form from nothing and not a single pegasus flew into it since. Who could be up there? How could he be up there?!

'What the?' came from the cloud again. 'OH NO, NO, NO! WORK DAMN YOU! YES!'

A few moments later the lightnings stopped and the buzzing as well. The cloud started to disappear and finally a solid form, a pony emerged of the cloud! It wasn't a pegasus, but neither did it fall. The pony was wearing a parachute! Twilight thought they were only made for pegasi who didn't yet master flying, but here was one, sized of a grown stallion.

Twilight watched in complete confusion as the stallion, this teal dot glided slowly towards the ground, kicking the air around him and cheering at throat ripping noise. The mare could not imagine what she may be experiencing at the moment, but it seemed pretty obvious that this pony had something to do with the weather. Just who could he be?

She started walking towards where the stallion was to land but - perhaps due to bad hoofwork or poor design - in his cheering, the stallion managed to accidentally push himself out of the harness that connected him to the parachute and started falling and screaming, still many feet from the ground. Thinking fast, Twilight kicked off her bags and galloped towards the falling stallion, horn glowing a fierce shade of violet as she concentrated on catching the teal pony.

Barely, she managed to stop the fall literally a hoof's distance from the ground. Once opening his deep purple eyes the stallion carefully placed his hooves on the ground. Twilight panted from the panic and adrenaline that came over her in the last few seconds, but straightened up, prepared to be addressed by the one who's well-being she just ensured. Instead of thanking her however, the stallion just grinned at the ground and smelled the grass. He quickly turned around (in the opposite direction as his saviour) and looked at the distant view of Canterlot.

'Where is it?' the stallion asked, perhaps of himself suddenly. Still not looking at the lavender unicorn, he searched the ground around him for where his harness landed in the meantime and ran to it. Just now did Twilight notice that under his dirty, dark teal, matted mane, the stallion actually had a unicorn's horn since he used it to lift a small token-like item from the harness and started staring at it, while randomly turning to directions and mumbling to himself in a cheerful tone.

'Ahem.' the mare cleared her throat finally. The stallion raised his head somewhat surprised then looked at Twilight.

'Oh goodness! I'm so terribly sorry!' he apologized hastily with a somewhat weaker grin. 'I've forgotten my manners, but this is just so amazing! And exhilarating! And GLORIOUS!' The stallion broke out in maniacal laughter.

'Um.' started Twilight, taking a careful step back - despite the fact that there was at least ten feet of distance between them already. 'Was it you that caused that strange weather?'

'Weather?' - the stallion asked a bit lost. 'Oh, that! Yes. Well, not exactly. It wasn't weather really, it was a spell I was working on for as long as I can remember.' he brushed off the question quickly then started laughing again which felt even more disturbing the second time around. 'Please! Please do tell me! That is Canterlot to the North-East right?'

'Ye-yes?' replied the confused mare.

'It's better than I could hope for! All the calculations, all the work!' the stallion went on. 'Of course I should have arrived on the ground but that is just a minor problem. I'm finally in Equestria!'

'What?' Twilight could be patient when needed, but this was just too much. What does he mean by "He's in Equestria now."? 'Could you PLEASE explain who you are and what this is all about?'

'Who I am? Well uh. That's sort of a difficult question.' started the stallion then paused. The grin slowly gave place to a bit of shame. Finally after a bit of thinking he answered: 'I don't exactly have a name.'

'How can you not have a name?' Twilight asked the obvious question confusedly. 'I've never heard of a single pony who wouldn't have had a name.'

'Well, how would you? If they would talk about him, they would give him a name.' said the stallion with a small smile but then seeing how the lavender mare isn't open for jokes at the moment he changed his tone a bit. 'I'm sorry, it's just a bit difficult to explain this all.' he stopped and a bit mincingly added: 'To be quite honest you're the first Equestrian pony I've seen...' he paused for a moment. '…in person. Star's around! You're the first pony I've seen in person!'

The stallion suddenly launched at Twilight excitedly, who - though started to doubt that this strange unicorn is meaning her any harm - used her magic to push him back a little. What kind of madness could have taken hold of this pony? What was that cloud truly? She just needed to find out.

'Please, could you try to explain all of this? Where did you come from?' she asked in a calming voice.

'Well,' he started slowly, perhaps realizing how outlandishly he's been acting. 'It would be difficult to put on a map as the land's where I've been and the maps of Equestria do not intersect.' The teal unicorn explained. 'I'm from far beyond Equestria's borders and traveled many lands. I've been trying to get here for as long as I can remember. As I've said: I do not have a real name as...' the stallion paused again and only continued after a few moments of hesitation. 'I was mostly just called "Pony" where I lived but you can call me... Um.' The stallion paused once more and started to think, looking around aimlessly. On a sudden note his eyes widened and he turned his head around, looking at his flank. 'No that would not fit here, though then again... Say, what does this mark look like to you?' he asked, turning so the mare can see his flank.

Though it was considered rude to stare at a stranger's flank, a brief glimpse in that direction caught Twilight's attention fully. Despite the obvious age of the stallion, his flank was as blank as a newborn's.

'N-Nothing?' she said confusedly. She didn't really know what to make of it. If this unicorn truly has no cutie mark in this age, then she wouldn't even know what to react to it.

'Nothing?' the stallion asked. 'Oh, it's a bit hard to make out.' he nodded. 'It shares the colour with my coat, a bit ironic to it's meaning actually. Here.' With this the stallion lighted the end of his horn and pointed it towards his back. The light shined off his coat except in a strange pattern over his hind legs.'

'What is that?' asked Twilight who never saw anything like it.

'It's just a symbol used by the Kiang.' said the stallion after a little hesitation, perhaps assuming that the name 'Kiang' should mean something to the mare in front of him. 'But what does it look like to you?'

'It's just a circle and a V inside it.'

'Oh.' the stallion seemed a bit disappointed. 'I was hoping it might look like something specific. I have no...' One more time, the stallion paused. 'A cricle and a 'V'? An O and a V! Yes, that's great! A monogram! Let's see, o, o, o... - he quickly turned around again. Twilight knew better than to argue with this strange pony. 'Oak! Yes, oak!' he said once his eyes met a group of trees not far from the two of them. 'That's not too weird a name is it? No, I'm sure I've read something from a pony named Oakleaf.' he thought out loud. 'V, v, v... That's one hard letter to find. Oak V. Oak the Fifth? Oak the Va... Oak the Vagrant. Oakleaf the Vagrant! Yes, perfect!'

The stallion clopped his right front hoof on the ground a few times excitedly while quietly repeating the phrase, as if tasting the words. After done, he turned to Twilight and bowed his head with a smile.

'Oakleaf the Vagrant; Wanderer of Distant lands, Familiar of the Kiang, Friend of Rgod Ma the Kind and Crafter of Spells. At your service and humbled by the opportunity to meet you!' he listed in a proud tone.

'Twilight Sparkle.' replied the mare a bit unsure. 'Pleased to meet you?' She didn't mean it to sound like a question, but was so lost in everything the stallion threw at her at this point, that she just couldn't help it.

'Oh, too much?' said the stallion, pulling his neck back a little. 'I'm sorry. I'm not used to meeting anypony... from... "Home".'

'It's all right, but could you please tell me what all that was just a bit ago? You said it was a spell.'

'Yes it was. A transportation spell for massive distances, to be exact. But it's a bit complicated. You see, my oldest memory is waking up as a colt in a strange house with lots and lots of books.' started the stallion. 'From one of them, an unsigned journal I could deduce that it was in fact, my home. Except it was supposed to stand who knows how far away somewhere here in Equestria near a lake where ponies retired on vacations. Instead it was now in a land not even recognized on the maps the house had. There were no other ponies, no signs of civilization an endless forest around me and no memory of who I was or how I got there.'

'Are you serious?' Twilight heard many strange things in her life. No that doesn't even begin to explain it! She's SEEN and even done many strange things in her life, but this just didn't make sense... Unless it had something to do with Discord while he was still at large. That might explain it. 'How long ago was this?'

'Oh many, many years ago. At first I didn't even count the months, so I can't be sure.' replied the stallion. Obviously, it couldn't have been Discord because of the time frame. 'I'm still a bit fussy on the details of how I ended up there with no recollection about my past what so ever but, eh... I've got a few ideas.'

'Ideas?'

The stallion crossed his eyes a little as he looked up on his horn. 'You know how I said I'm a Crafter of Spells? IIIII'm not exactly the best Caster of them. And that's about why there was a cloud up there, as opposed to down here a while ago. I've spent the last few years trying to find where Equestria is, come home. Apparently the spell I've created worked, I've just messed it up and ended up mid air. I'm very thankful of your rescue of course.' the stallion bowed again.

'But how come you brought a parachute if you didn't know you will end up in mid air?' asked Twilight.

'When you find proof that you've been experimenting with magic, probably behind the backs of your parents and it made you and your entire house appear in a different continent entirely, with you not remembering anything? Which I presume was not the idea, by the way. Well, it's suffice to say that you learn to prepare for every possibility. I've brought a compass, a detailed map, lots of compressed nourishment for food supplies and a ton of simple spells in my head to get me out of nasty situations.'

'But how come your cutie mark is not some kind of magical reference if you can cast so powerful spells?'

'"Can"? Anypony "can" cast spells. You just have to know them and know your way around your own horn first. Then you're half way there. On the other hoof, succeeding with them is something I'm not good with. The bigger the spell, obviously the more concentration is needed and believe me, I'm not good at that part. Frankly, I'm surprised I didn't end up on the moon or something.' noted the stallion and stretched his legs. 'Is that yours?' he added, looking behind Twilight and lifting the saddlebag that she kicked off earlier.

'Uh yes, thank you.' Twilight took over the bag and put it back in its rightful place.

She wasn't quite sure what to make of the stallion at this point. He obviously meant no harm to anypony but then again he was obviously mad. Even if she assumes he came from where he says he's come from, casting spells that could potentially put him anywhere - given his own explanation - was something only somepony out of a very unrealistic adventure book would do. Something just rubbed her the wrong way about letting this 'Oakleaf' wander about without guidance.

'What are you planning to do?' she asked. 'Now that you've made your way back to Equestria, I mean.'

'Well, for the longest time I thought I'll try and find the lake my house was supposed to be by. See if anypony remembers me.' said Oakleaf with a strange, concentrating expression, as if he too would be trying to find out what he wants. 'But recently I didn't feel like I really would like to go home. That life isn't simply behind me but I don't even know what it was. I guess I'd just like to be around my own for a change. Besides, as bad as my casting is, the actual spells I've made are quite useful, perhaps ponies who are better at casting spells could make good use of them.'

Oh right, he said he's a crafter of spells, Twilight didn't want to even imagine what would happen if a mad unicorn like this tried to improvise a new spell in a crowd. Magic can do wondrous things, but can also be very dangerous too. In the wrong hooves...

'Are you sure further experimenting with spells is a good idea? Given your past?' the unicorn mare said cautiously.

'Experimenting? Of course not. I don't want to cast another spell in my life to be honest. But what can I do? The talen... Or cutie mark was it?' Oak started. 'So I've got that mark when I first attempted to create a new spell. According to all the books in my house, that means it's my true talent. I'm still not going to actually cast any spells though. The part I'm good at is figuring out the 'how' of spells anyway. As I think I said, the mark is pretty ironic. It's an ancient magic symbol, but apparently quite obsolete and more or less invisible to everypony. The same way I'm good at magic but no one could tell it by looking at my casting.'

The stallion looked at Twilight with an unsure smile. By now he obviously picked up on how the mare feels about his little story. He looked at her in a "What can I say?" manner. He obviously didn't want to look mad but if that was the cost of being open, then he was ready to put on the jester's crown.

'Are you good with spells?' he asked.Twilight didn't know if she should admit how that if there's something she's good at then it's magic or stay out of this as much as possible. Finally she decided to take the middle route and replied:

'I'm pretty good with them, but I don't know if I...'

'Give me just a moment!' Oakleaf interrupted and quickly started drawing magical symbols into the ground with a larger rock that was laying around. 'There!'

Twilight looked at the symbols, they were the same as with any spell books she saw and though most of it was pretty complicated, it was obviously a summoning spell.

'What does this do?' she asked and took a few steps back.

'It's going to bring my spell book here. It contains pretty much every spell I've ever created! I was afraid I might appear in or over a lake so I just made a spell that will summon it to me once I'm somewhere safe. If you're really good with spells, I would be in your debt if you could get it for me. If you want, you can even look into it and use any spells you like.'

It was obvious: She shouldn't do it. The lavender unicorn knew better than to cast unknown spells that a strange, mad unicorn shows her. But what if it is a spell book? Maybe Oak is telling the truth? It could reveal everything. She examined the spell once more, searching for anything out of place but couldn't find anything. She watched helplessly as curiosity got the best of her. A bit hesitantly but the mare nodded and her horn carefully took on a pinkish glare. "Please don't let me regret this." Twilight thought to herself as she closed her eyes and gave her full power to the spell.

A moment later she heard a small thud. She opened her eyes and there laid a large brown tome. The stallion cheered in joy as she lifted the tome from the grass and opened it. She flipped through the pages quickly and on the last pages she found a slightly chaotic listing of all the spell classes in the tome with page indexes next to them. From what she could tell, there were over a hundred classes like animating object, visual spells, musical spells, summoning and even transmutation spells, each with about ten spells at least under it's category. She never saw a single book contain this many spells in her life, let alone all being the work of a crazy unicorn who just fell out of the sky.

'The last one was the spell that got me here.' the crazy unicorn noted.

Twilight flipped back a few pages and found a larger piece of paper folded together and sewn inside the book. She only saw its outer side and it had a single word written on it: "Home". The stallion used his own horn to carefully open the paper and it revealed an enlarged version of the same strange symbol on his flank except this one was built up of very small magical symbols that together formed a single, incredibly complicated spell. Looking at it, Twilight immediately saw that her brief description of the mark as "a circle and a V" wasn't too accurate but somehow the overall shape wasn't as intriguing as the amount of symbols placed inside it. This could have been potentially the most complicated spell she ever saw. She didn't want to admit it but she didn't comprehend half of what she saw and what she did, seemed to be directions marking the location of Equestria in all of existence.

'Why would you create such a huge spell when all you wanted to do was get here?' asked Twilight after about a half minute of staring at the spell, trying to figure it out. 'You could have upgraded a simple teleportation spell with half this work.'

'You have no idea of the distance I'm coming from.' said the stallion smiling, looking proudly at his work. 'It wouldn't do with a "simple" teleportation spell. Besides this is a spell that could potentially be used by anypony. Provided I can create an easily modifiable enchantment version. Anypony could go anywhere at anytime they want, as it doesn't specifically require the power to come from a unicorn, it uses the power of nature. That's why there were lightnings when I arrived.' he explained. Then, seeing the look on the mare's face Oak quickly added: 'Completely harmless by the way. All their power is drained by the spell.'

'It's...' started Twilight but shook her head. 'I'm sorry but I'm not sure I can give this to you.'

There were so many spells there. That book could easily have contained something - perhaps unintentionally - dangerous. ESPECIALLY if he did actually manage to somehow use the power of nature itself to power any of them.

'What?' All signs of a smile's existence disappeared from the teal stallion's face. 'You can't mean that! Why?!'

You have to understand.' started Twilight and closed the tome, placing it on her back while also taking a few steps back, preparing for a potential attack from the mad stallion. 'All these spells may be amazing but they might not exactly be the safest... In certain unforeseen circumstances I mean. Besides, there are strict laws here in Equestria regarding magic. I have to make sure they don't break the law, before allowing you or anypony else to get their hooves on it.'

'But they're all harmless!' said the stallion devastated and started trotting up and down in front of Twilight looking at the ground, clumsily trying to make a counter argument. 'It's the work of my life in there! It's everything I have now that I'm here! What will I do without it?!' He sighed and stopped, continuing in a calmer tone: 'Do you promise to give it back once you know it's harmless?'

'It will have to be checked very thoroughly, but if it really is harmless...' replied Twilight, evaluating her options. She honestly thought this stallion would go into a rage over losing his book. If all her life's work would be taken just like that, she didn't think she could handle it. The mare couldn't help but admire how much self-control this stallion is exhibiting, he must really want to show that he can fit it.

Finally she said: 'I promise.'

'Thank you.' Oak said, trying to hold back his frown. 'Until then, could you tell me where I should go? So we can keep in touch while you work on it.'

Twilight's first thought was sending the unicorn to Canterlot Castle so he'll be under the watchful eyes of the royal guards. But looking at the devastated unicorn who was jumping in joy just moments ago - and from whom she herself has taken his entire life's work - she just couldn't make herself send the stallion off. As he acted as social and normal as it can be expected from somepony in his mind's state, perhaps it would be best if she gets him a temporary home in Ponyville where he will be surrounded by friendly faces.

'I'm actually going home to Ponyville at the moment.' she started. 'Perhaps you could get a room there somewhere.'

For the fraction of a moment a smile appeared on the face of the stallion when Twilight said the name of Ponyville, but the mare didn't see it.

'That would be wonderful.' said the stallion and raised his head. 'Can I take this as an invite to tag along, or should we just be two ponies who happen to walk the same road?'

'I don't mind if you wish to come along.' said Twilight after a moment's hesitation and started walking back to the road. A bit later the stallion who ran back for his harness, joined her.

'Just out of curiosity, what do you do in Ponyville and what does the star stand for? Are you an astronomer?' Oak asked.

'I'm a librarian.' relied Twilight. 'The star is... Well my talent is using magic.'

'Heh.' A shade of the former smile returned to the teal unicorn's face. 'Well I guess I've made the perfect selection in first acquaintance. And this Ponyville? Does it happen to be the same little village that houses one of the largest apple acres near Canterlot?'

'Sweet Apple Acres?' asked Twilight back.

'Sweet Apple Acres.' he repeated carefully saying each word. 'I knew I've... read something about this place in my books. I can't wait to finally know what an apple tastes like!' When he said this, Twilight accidentally missed a step in surprise. 'This might not be that bad at all. I'm glad I've met you Miss Twilight Sparkle.' he said with a semi-forced smile then just trotted next to her silently through the rest of the journey, lost in thoughts.

Twilight wasn't much better off. She was filled with countless thoughts as on where she will get this stallion a proper room. Naturally her mind first raced through her friends for possibilities, as she wanted somepony who knows to send for her if something 'happens', as the host for Oakleaf.

Rainbow Dash who literally lived in the clouds and Fluttershy who never was comfortable around strangers were out of question of course. Then, Rarity was a 'lady' and it is not very 'ladylike' to invite a stallion who is a complete stranger, into her home for the night.

Twilight took a look at Oakleaf with his dirty and uncombed mane, wearing that strange parachute harness. A pity makeover was the best he could expect from Rarity. This leaves Applejack and Pinkie Pie. A welcome-home party sized for someone who spent all his life outside of Equestria was the first thing that crossed the mare's mind when she thought of her pink friend. Normally she loved Pinkie's parties but she knew her friend just too well.

Pinkie was able to take anything to the extreme if the situation was just tiny bit out of the ordinary so Twilight wasn't quite sure what Pinkie would do when learning about the stallion. However, "visible all the way from Canterlot" was probably the lower limit to whatever it was. Besides, when one of Pinkie's plans grows too large, things can get out of hooves very quickly. Right then, with this strange spell book - and its even stranger author - things getting out of hooves was the last thing she wanted. She decided that it would be best not to tell Pinkie about this stallion, at least for a while.

Applejack would be perfect though, she is open, friendly but not very pushy either. Their house has a whole set of guest rooms for the annual Apple family reunions. Only problem could be if it'd turn out that Oak hates the taste of apples.

But seriously, who could hate apples?

It was around five o'clock by the time Twilight and her new acquaintance made it back to Ponyville. During the journey Twilight decided that it really shouldn't be her who goes through the spell book that she took from the stallion. As good as she was with magic, she lacked the experience to recognize many spells or see chaotic bits that could potentially cause unwanted effects. During her studies she learned that sometimes spells work perfectly for one unicorn as it is fitted to their own magical energies but can do anything from simply not working to destroying random objects when cast by somepony else.

There is an order to everything in Equestria. Other mages did not fail to create this many spells just because they couldn't, new spells need to be studied by an official committee so it can safely be said that it does not contain any mistakes. The only one who she can trust to know what all these spells are, is Princess Celestia - and she should receive it as soon as possible.

On the other hoof, she shouldn't send it while Oakleaf is around. Surely she could explain that Princess Celestia will be able to find experts who get through his spells quicker, but watching his precious tome disintegrate in Spike's magical fire breath is definitely not something the stallion would enjoy watching.

'Look, I'd really like to drop off my books, real quick, at my home,' started Twilight. 'but it's half way across town. I was thinking, maybe you'd like to wait here?'

'Oh, no thank you.' replied Oak. 'I've spent most of the day sitting around and preparing to cast the spell. I'm at a loss of mileage here anyway.'

'Are you sure?' Twilight tried to quickly think of an excuse. 'Maybe you would like to eat something while I'm away?' A pink image flashed through her mind and she unconsciously continued: 'Cupcakes perhaps?'

What has she done? She had already established that the last pony who should be told about this stallion was Pinkie Pie. If she finds out about this stallion, there is no telling what will happen. She just really hoped that Oakleaf wouldn't pick up on her offer.

'Cupcakes? Oh you mean those little baked sweets? I've always imagined trying those!' the stallion replied excitedly. 'Don't tell me that there is a shop right here somewhere?'

'A-actually...' Twilight tried to find a way to wiggle herself out of this situation, but realized that the deed is done, so just hanged her head and said: 'Yes. It's Sugarcube Corner not far from here. But they might be closed by now.'

They weren't.

'Ooh Twilight dear! So good to see you.' dinged Mrs Cake's voice as the two of them entered the bakery. 'My, I was baking and didn't hear anything, was there a storm?' she asked as her eyes wandered onto the matted, dirty mane of the teal unicorn.

'You could say that.' said Twilight simply, while looking around the shop carefully. 'Is Pin... Oh I mean, Mrs Cake this is Oakleaf. Oakleaf this is Mrs Pie. I mean Cake. Mrs Cake. She and her husband run this bakery.'

'Pleasure to meet you ma'am.' bowed Oakleaf.

'Oh it's all mine.' smiled Mrs Cake sweetly then turned to the sweating librarian. 'Are you quite alright dear?'

'Yes! Yes, I've just got to run off for a bit and thought I'd let Oakleaf sample your sweets while I get back.' she said then quickly added: 'Unless you are just about to close, in that case we can come back tomorrow!'

'To be honest, I was just about to turn in,' started Mrs Cake as Twilight's mind screamed a glorious "YES!" 'but I'm sure Pinkie would love to serve your friend here.' she finished with the sweetest smile while Twilight's stomach lumped into a singular marble sized object.

'That would be... great.' said the filly of the room surrendering the battle.

'Pinkie!' yelled Mrs Cake then nodded farewell and made her way out of the public part of her home.

'Coming!' chirped the pink hearth of Ponyville while hopping down the stairs. 'Ooooooh! Twilight! You're just the pony I wanted to see! I've got this wicked idea for a party prank and need somepony to enchant the chairs so...' This was as far as she's got before noticing the new stallion. 'Oh hey!' She hopped to the stallion excitedly. 'My name is Pinkie Pie and I can tell you're new because I know everypony - and I mean EVERYPONY - in Ponyville!'

Twilight just sighed and hanged her head.

'And since you're new' continued Pinkie Pie. 'I'm sure you have no idea where you are, so let me welcome you to the absolute bestest place to eat, drink, party, laugh, sit, stand, jump, sleep, nap, sing or do just about anything in all of Ponyville!' she listed merrily. 'Except swimming.' she added thoughtfully. 'But you've got the spa, the lake and the fountain for that! So what do you want to try?'

'Well, uh my name is Oakleaf.' started the stallion a bit confused but smiling. 'Miss Sparkle said you've got cupcakes.'

'Yes-indeedy!' replied the filly. 'We've got all sorts of cupcakes and I mean ALL sorts of them. Just name what kind you like and I'll get you one in a moment!'

'Well actually I've never tried cupcakes before so I tho...'

'Ehihihi.' giggled the filly. ' "Never tried cupcakes." You're so silly!'

'Actually I really haven't. I thought maybe you could suggest which ones are your favourites.' said teal pony, but Pinkie just kept laughing.

Finally after about ten seconds, Pinkie's laughter started to die down and she looked at Twilight who still hanged her head. The pink pony then looked back at the stallion who wore a clumsy smile. When it finally hit her, Pinkie gasped in a way only she can.

'Youdon'tmeanyoureallynevereverinyourlifeateasinglecupcakedoyou?Howcouldthatbe?' Pinkie jabbered in a single breath. 'Did your parents hate cupcakes? Why? Why did your parents hate cupcakes!? Well I ought to go and give them a piece of my mind!'

'Pinkie, calm down.' hushed her the lavender mare who was suddenly hit by an idea. 'I agree that this is quite astounding but if anypony can remedy this then it is...' Twilight paused forcing a supportive smile on her face.

'Well duuuuh it's me.' replied Pinkie with her front hooves crossed, rolling her eyes. 'Wait right here.' she turned to Oakleaf. 'You're going to go on an o... Odyssey of deliciousness! On behalf of your good Auntie: Pinkie Pie!' with this, Pinkie disappeared into the kitchen.

'Well I think I'll run off now.' said Twilight. 'Take care, I'll be back in a few minutes!'

'Wait Miss Sparkle!' halted her the teal unicorn. 'I'd just like to thank you again for possibly saving my life earlier and allowing me to come with you.'

'Oh it's nothing really, I...'

'FIRST ROUND.' yelled Pinkie as she returned in a whizz with a plate full of various cupcakes. 'Make it count!'

'I'll be going then! See you in a minute Pinkie.' Twilight backed towards the door, trying her best not to give a reason for Pinkie to call her back. Twilight's efforts were for naught though, as the pink earth pony was too preoccupied with looking at the stallion wearing the eyes of a professional sports trainer who's just examining the newest member of the team.

'This is...' started Oakleaf after taking a bite from the first cupcake.

'Yeeees?' asked Pinkie.

'It is...' continued Oak while munching on the bite, a small smile hiding on the edge of his muzzle while keeping his eyes on the pink pony.

'YEEEEEES?' repeated Pinkie with a strange fire in her eyes.

'Delicious!' he finished and swallowed the cupcake.

'I knew you'd love it!' said Pinkie instantly changing to her merry self, starting to jump up and down. The stallion smiled and followed her example. 'It's one of my personal recipes too!' the pink pony giggled then suddenly took on a more serious look (while still not stopping her jumping). 'Now you stop jumping and eat!' she ordered the stallion, who obeyed gladly.

Twilight quickly disappeared through the front door. Once out, she started galloping towards the library as fast as she could. "I must not take long." she thought to herself but then realized: "Wait, I've left him with Pinkie who's not going to stop until giving him every cupcake they have. I've got some time." She quickly slowed down her pace to a crawl. "But I don't want her to choke the poor unicorn either." She sped up once more.

'SPIIIKE!' Twilight yelled while tossing her backpack down at the door. Lifting the new quill and inkwell from the pack with her magic, she quickly pranced to the nearest desk and summoned an empty scroll from its resting place on the shelf above the desk.

'Welcome home Twilight.' said the baby dragon after a yawn, walking out of the next room, rubbing his eyes. 'Is something wrong?'

'Nothing is wrong Spike.' Twilight replied not even looking back. 'It's just that...' "Wait, no these are for Spike." ran through her mind and she hastily hid the new quill and inkwell behind a book on the shelf next to her, quickly summoning another quill and inkwell. 'It's just that something; somepony came up. I've got to send a quick letter to the princess with a book and I need it to get there as soon as possible.' she explained while dripping the quill in ink and stretching the scroll out on the desk.

Dear Princess Celestia!

I'm writing to you in haste as the unicorn - who's claiming authorship of the attached spell tome - is waiting for me.

I'm not quite sure who this stallion is. He claims he is from a land very far from here where a race called "Kiang" lives. He also claims he "appeared there with his house" many years ago when he was but a colt and that he's from Equestria originally, being transported there by some sort of powerful, experimental spell that he claims he himself created.

I will write you another letter soon, further explaining the situation but the important part is as follows:

He gave me this spell tome after appearing southwest of Canterlot, literally out of thin air. He claimed he used a self-made spell and that he himself designed. This spell among a huge library of other spells that he claims authorship of are located in this tome.

I'm sending it to you because though he seems gentle, he's not entirely 'there' in my opinion. I fear these spells may contain dangers, even if not intentionally, and if where he says he's from is true then it never went through the necessary mediums and no pony inspected the spells' quality.

Please, take a look at it or send it to a committee so I will know I'm not causing harm if I give it back to him upon its return.

Your faithful student;
- Twilight Sparkle

Once finished, the unicorn quickly rolled up and sealed the scroll, then placed it on the tome and handed both to Spike.

'Just one more thing Spike!' she said and with a quick spell, enchanted the tome so it will be sent along the scroll instead of simply burning to a crisp by the dragon's fire. 'You can send it now.'

The baby dragon took a big breath then blewn his green flames onto the tome and scroll which quickly turned to green dust and flew off through the slightly opened window.

'What was that all about, Twilight?' asked the dragon, but his pony housemate was already at the door again.

'I'll tell you later Spike! If the princess writes back, place it on the desk. As soon as I'm back I'll write her another letter anyway and I'll explain everything.' replied Twilight before leaving her assistant alone in the library again.

A familiar laughter, mixed with a deeper one greeted Twilight Sparkle when she arrived back at the bakery. As she stepped in, she first noticed the dozens of large cooking plates laying about on the counter and the ground, with colourful crumbs on them.

'And then! Oh you'll love this.' said Oak to the laughing pink mare. 'So I thought I've done it. The clouds were out of my nose, the parachute all open and I was dancing in the air as I said. Except my terrible dancing disgusted even my own harness and it spat me out!' he laughed. 'Well okay, actually I was just moving too much and slipped, but it sure felt like the parachute was just disowning me.'

Twilight's eyes shrank in fear. "He told Pinkie? Oh no this won't be good."

'Oh and when I thought I'll literally make my mark on the land of Equestria,' added Oak when he noticed that the unicorn walked in. 'just like now, Miss Sparkle came swooshing in from who-knows-where and did the unrepayable favour of saving my sorry coat.'

'I'm terribly sorry, but we've got to get going to get to Applejack's!' said Twilight quickly trying to save the situation.

'Oh,' Pinkie snorted to try and stop laughing a bit. 'Good night Twilight! And see you both at the party!'

'WHATPARTY?!' shouted Twilight instantly on top of her lungs.

'Oh silly. I'm throwing Oakleaf a welcoming party of course!' said Pinkie not even noting her friend's outburst and waved her hoof. And with that, it was over. Pinkie knew. She was going to gather the whole town up and go completely bonkers. 'I throw one for every new pony in town, you should know Twi!' The pink pony tilted her smiling head looking at her friend curiously.

'Oh wait. THAT kind of party?!' Twilight sighed relieved. 'I just thought... Never mind. I'll make sure to be there! See you later Pinkie!' As soon as saying this she quickly moved next to Oakleaf and gave him a less than gentle push towards the door. The stallion obeyed without question, just nodding at Pinkie.

Once out, Twilight lead Oakleaf away from Sugar Cube Corner at trotting speed, trying to get the two as far away from each other as possible like two ingredients of an explosive chemical mixture.

'I didn't tell her my story, if that's what you're worried about.' noted the stallion while slowing his steps once the image of the bakery was reduced to the size of a coin.

'How did you know?' turned back Twilight with a surprised look.

'Please, you looked terrible the moment she came down the stairs even though you two are obviously friends. Then you tried to get me out of there as soon as you heard me telling about our meeting.' the stallion gently tapped his front hoof on the side of his nose twice, smiling. 'I would make for a lousy spell maker, not to mention survivalist if I didn't pay attention to detail.'

'And you instantly deduced that I don't want her to hear your story?' asked Twilight raising her eyebrow in disbelief.

'Actually, first I thought you actually hated her and were just trying to get as far from her as possible. But she told me about how great friends you are and how you do pretty much everything together. She would have caught on. It was obviously me. And if you don't happen to know that I'm from countless miles from here and' At this point he pointed his front hoof at his mane. 'give me a mane brush, I'm just like any other pony around here. Well, at least I hope I am.'

Twilight could do little more than just nod at the reasoning. They've continued down the road to Sweet Apple Acres.

Before arriving, Twilight quickly went through a draft of the explanation she will give to Applejack. Deep down she questioned her own decision of taking the stallion here, maybe she shouldn't really have made such a fuss of it all...

'Good evenin'!' interrupted her thoughts a deep, mild and familiar voice; Big Macintosh's voice.

The red coated stallion - with his large, cut apple mark on his flank that mirrored his open earnestness as much as his beloved vocation - looked out from behind an apple tree up ahead by the road where he was resting himself, sitting against the trunk.

By now, harvest season was long over, but the members of the Apple family had a special kind of pride born enjoyment they could feel whenever they were among their beloved trees. Besides, a little care and a watchful eye for possible infections never did hurt an apple orchard.

'Oh, hey Big Mac!' replied Twilight quickly. 'Uh, is Applejack here or...?'

'She's at the house Miz Sparkle...' answered the blond stallion looking at the mare in his usual, blank, "lost in thoughts" fashion. 'Sir.' Macintosh added and bowed his head at the stranger by Twilight's side.

'Good evening.' nodded that back with a friendly smile. 'Oakleaf, pleased to meet you! Do you work here on this apple acre?'

Big Macintosh looked to the side a bit then stood up and replied only then.

'Eeeyup.' came simply. 'Big Macintosh an' so in return.' he added.

'In case you would happen to be heading our way and it's not much of a bother,' started Oakleaf. 'would you mind telling me about this wonderful little country you have around here?'

'If Miz Sparkle doesn't mind...' came the reply from Macintosh after he examined the matted but friendly stallion in front of him.

'I don't... mind.' accepted Twilight. Her mind was still on Applejack mostly and didn't pay much attention to the questions her new acquaintance pointed to the farm pony, nor to the terse answers that gave, much to the silent disappointment of the teal stallion who wished to hear as much as possible.

"I guess his curiosity is understandable." drifted off Twilight's mind after a while. The stallion seemed overjoyed when they came across somepony, as if wishing nothing else than to sit down somewhere and hear as much as possible. But why didn't he ask her? The answer was clear to her even before the question would fully form in her mind and it was probably sitting on Princess Celestia's desk right now.

She shouldn't have just taken that book like that. Obviously, if she just asks kindly, this curious and friendly unicorn would have voluntarily sent it to the Princess. She shouldn't have been this distrusting... But then again, this same unicorn, by his own description manipulated the very powers of nature to cast a spell that could just as much kill him as accomplish his task. Would it really have been safe to assume at that point, that the stallion would give up the book voluntarily?

Torn between these thoughts, Twilight hardly even noticed as her hooves carried her to the big Apple family house in the hearth of Sweet Apple Acres. Once looking up, the thought that perhaps she should ask Applejack's opinion flashed through her mind, but looking back at her company she knew this wasn't the time nor the place to discuss her feelings on the situation with her most honourable friend.

'Siiis!' yelled Big Mac once they stopped in the courtyard of the house, looking around for the orange farmmare.

'Coooomin'!' came a merry shout from behind the house and soon Applejack appeared at the corner, hooves covered in mud. Oh, hey there sugar cube!'

'Miz Twilight wanted to see you Sis.' explained Big Mac simply.

'Actually, it sort of concerns you too Mac.' said Twilight. 'This is my new acquaintance: Oakleaf.' she introduced the teal unicorn.

'It's a pleasure Miss.' nodded Oakleaf.

'Pleasure is ahll mine!' replied Applejack and trotted over to the stallion, kicking most of the mud off her hooves then raising it towards the unicorn. 'Welcome ta Sweet Apple Acres! Mah name's Applejack!'

'Oakleaf.' nodded the stallion again, a bit uncertainly placing his own hoof on Applejack's who gave it a mighty shake.

'I was hoping you could give a room to him for a night.' continued Twilight. 'He is very new around here and I'd like him to be with someone who knows what it's like to be an apple on an orange farm.'

Applejack gave her a strange look, obviously she's got the reference, but knew the unicorn too well to think that she would bring just about anypony to her doorstep. Even if that pony would be in a situation she's familiar with. Twilight caught up on this and tried to use her eyes to express that this is important without giving a clue to the two stallions.

'Well ahlright! Sweet Apple Acres is ahlways ready to give a friendly hoof to somepony who needs it.' Applejack declared finally. 'Please show 'im to one of the guest rooms Big Mac!'

Twilight noticed that now Applejack and Big Macintosh also exchanged a few looks in their own personal language, but she couldn't figure out what they could have mean. A moment later Big Mac nodded and asked the teal unicorn to follow, leaving behind the two friends.

'So what in the hay is this all about Twi?' asked Applejack once the stallions were in the house and out of earshot.

'I'm sorry Applejack but I can't explain everything right now.' replied Twilight lowering her head a bit, ashamed of not being completely honest to her friend. 'I'm not sure about the whole thing myself and I've got to get home as soon as possible to write to the Princess.'

'To the Princess?' asked Applejack with wide eyes. 'What sort' a unicorn did you bring here Twi?'

'You don't have to worry about him, he's just a bit... lost. It's just...' Twilight tried to find the right words but they were escaping her at the moment. 'Look, you don't have to worry about anything right now. I just want you to keep an eye on him okay? He won't do anything but he's a bit 'out there'. I wanted you to look after him until I can take care of a few... Things.'

Applejack searched her friend's face but couldn't find anything but shame, regret and a passing sense of fear. While she wasn't at all happy about her friend keeping secrets from her, she knew that if Twilight does something like this, she does it with a good reason.

The orange earth pony walked to the unicorn and placed her least dirty front hoof on her friend's shoulder, smiling at her conductively.

'I promise Applejack,' started Twilight, struggling to not burst out right now. 'if you come to the library tomorrow I'll explain everything. I'd really like to talk to you about this but I just can't right now.'

'Ah will Twi. An' don't you worry!' Here Applejack rubbed her hoof on Twilight's shoulder. 'Ahm sure whatever's got you so worked up will turn out juuuuust right!'

'Thank you Applejack.' Twilight smiled at her orange friend and gave her a big hug. 'Tomorrow! I promise!'

With this the lavender unicorn rushed off towards her home. She needed to write a new letter to the Princess as soon as possible. And Spike! How could she forget Spike, she'll have to explain to him too.

'Spike!' she called for her assistant as soon as the library's door opened.

'I'm here. I'm here.' replied Spike, stepping down the stairs. 'What do you need Twilight?'

'I'm sorry I had to rush off so quickly earlier, but I'll try to explain everything.' the unicorn reassured the dragon. She stepped to the shelf where she hid the quill and inkwell she that bought in Canterlot earlier in the day. Carefully lifting them out of their hiding place, the mare turned to the young dragon. 'I've didn't really have time to give you this when I've got back.'

Twilight handed the exquisite quill and inkwell wearing the letter S on its side to Spike with a slightly apologetic smile. The dragon was surprised at the sudden gifts but examined them with great joy, especially when noticing the first letter of his name on the inkwell.

'Wow, thanks Twilight but what's the occasion?' he asked a bit confused.

'Just for...' started Twilight then paused. She honestly didn't remember now. Why did she get it? She searched through the room, looking to reverse her steppes through the day. The hastily dropped bag full of books caught her eye and the idea of the book club crawled back into her mind. With the sudden appearance of this strange stallion, the book club became something of a distant sketch of an idea, completely unimportant.

'It's for giving me the idea for the book club. And for writing to Umber Mug at the tavern for me.' she said finally with a thankful smile, then continued wondering: 'I was going to write a letter to the Princess about the book club, but I think that'll have to wait. I'll have to write to her about a strange pony I've met today. Would you mind taking down the letter?'

'One step ahead of you Twilight.' replied the dragon who already opened a blank scroll and dipped his new quill in ink.

'Thank you Spike.' thanked him Twilight then started dictating: 'Dear Princess Celestia...'

Twilight carefully recounted everything she could about the event when the teal stallion appeared out of the sky. She did her best to recreate the conversation and describe the way the stallion acted, putting note on how he wanted to find his past, after all, if anypony can help him find it that pony will be somewhere around the Princess. Once done, she felt it would be appropriate to also describe the later actions of the stallion and dictated the curiosity the stallion later exhibited once they were in Ponyville.

'Well, that doesn't happen everyday.' noted Spike after Twilight finished the story. 'So that tome earlier was his spell book?'

'Yes Spike.' replied the unicorn. 'But I'd like to add one more thing. Put it in a new block please. Ahem!'

...It is of small importance in the presence of this strange unicorn and his book, but I've forgot to mention to you Princess, that the reasons I was in Canterlot earlier was that I wish to open a book club. I'm sorry for not visiting you but I was sure you are quite preoccupied (- It's two C-s Spike, not one. -) in the castle. I'll write to you on it in a more appropriate time, as usual.

I'm hoping to hear your opinion on these events soon.

Your faithful student;
- Twilight Sparkle

'Should I send it now?' asked the dragon, carefully rolling up the scroll.

'Go ahead.' nodded Twilight and watched as her message flies out a window in the form of green dust moments later.

'If you don't mind me saying Twilight, I think you've done the right thing.' noted Spike after closing the same window.

'What do you mean?' asked Twilight surprised.

'Well, you sounded pretty regretful when you mentioned taking the book from this Oakleaf figure.' explained Spike. 'But you yourself proved that it's never a good idea to let somepony who is simply crazy to cast spells.'

'I know...' replied Twilight bitterly, instantly knowing what the dragon meant. She was somewhat grateful that he didn't name the Miss Smartypants incident. 'But maybe I shouldn't have been that distrusting. He didn't do anything and I instantly assumed the worst. I acted just like the citizens of Ponyville when Zecora arrived.'

'Didn't do anything?' The dragon raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms. 'He conjured up a storm from nowhere, laughed manically and acted as if he would belong in a mental ward. All Zecora ever did was walk up main street and wait a few minutes. Besides who knows if his story is true anyway? He could have gotten that book from anywhere!'

Twilight just shook her head. She appreciated what her assistant was trying to do, but the dragon was known not to be an excellent judge of character. Not to mention his somewhat backwards view of right and wrong at times. In fact the way Spike supported her actions, she just felt even more confused in her decisions.

'Spike, I'm apprici...' Twilight started but was interrupted by a loud burping noise coming from the dragon.

An unusually thick scroll landed on the floor a moment later with a quite 'thump' noise and Spike picked it up quickly.

'It's from the Princess!' the assistant announced.

'Let me see that!'

Twilight quickly pulled the scroll from the dragon's hands and opened it. To her surprise another scroll rolled out of it with a separate seal. Picking it up, the unicorn noticed the following written on it's outer side: "To the Author of the Spell-book" Slightly confused, Twilight started reading the first scroll.

My dear student Twilight!

I'm happy that you've taken the initiative to send me this tome. I can't say much of it so far other than it is a very remarkable work. From what I could find in it so far, I must say that I'm impressed. While I recognize most of these spells' concepts, some are completely new, even to me.

Though from your description the unicorn who admittedly authored this work seems earnest in making his home here, as you yourself made sure to emphasise: his story is quite strange. It's an unusual tale, an entire building disappearing from Equestria, I cannot say who this stallion could have been.

It is difficult for me to create a full picture of him, but given the unique circumstances I believe I must make sure he is who he claims to be and that he doesn't mean any harm to Equestria and her inhabitants, willingly or unwillingly.

For this reason, I've attached another letter addressed to him. Please make sure he receives it at your earliest convenience. I ask that you give him support, should he need it in the following few days and keep an eye on him.

Yours truly;
Princess Celestia

Twilight didn't really know what to make of this. In retrospective it seemed a bit silly but she assumed as soon as she gets a reply from the Princess, it will clear everything up. She assumed the Princess will give it all meaning, tell her if her harsh taking of the book was just or not. Instead, her mentor admitted not to understand the situation herself.

While the unicorn was lost in thoughts, her assistant grabbed the steadily floating scroll's edge and pulled it closer to read.

'Well I guess this means it's out of your hooves now.' he said then rolled up the scroll.

'Huh?' asked Twilight, falling out of her thoughts.

'I think it's pretty obvious that the other letter is a summon of sorts so you don't have to worry about whoever this guy is, anymore.'

The lavender unicorn just nodded. In actuality, the past - what she has already done - was more of a concern to her at the moment than what was coming. She had a bad habit of greatly enlarging any bad thing she thought to discover about herself, as if an unknown inner force drove her to be the best she can possibly be, all the time.

She didn't really wish to talk about anything at the moment. All she wanted was to go to her bed and sleep, hoping that the morning would ease her heart. She moved the untouched scroll to a table and bid good night to the baby dragon. Walking up the stairs she was greeted by a friendly 'Whoo!' from her owl, but didn't really reply. She just laid down on the bed, turned to her side and tried her best to clear her mind.

The Cutie Whisperer

Someponies believe it to be difficult, perhaps even unbearable to wake up with the sun rise, to the loud hawking of a pretencious bird no less! Others, such as the members of the Apple family found it one of the most basic and uplifting components of the day.

For Apple Bloom, it meant a new day, full of new opportunities and fun with her Cutie Mark Crusader friends. For her big sister and brother, it meant another calm and fulfilling day out in the fresh air, having a well deserved rest, given that it was already the end of fall, past harvest season. For their grandmother it meant another restful day of exchanging letters with far away friends and family, while also taking a few quiet hours reflecting on a long rich life and the pride she feels towards her hard-working and foursquare grandchildren.

Beyond that, it meant another, very important thing to the entire family: A delicious breakfast, made the way only Granny Smith knows how. Apple Bloom - for one - declared to herself a long time ago, that even if her super special talent turns out to be something like train puller or maybe being a sea captain, which would lead her to far away lands, she would always find a way to come back as often as she can, because she could simply not imagine her life without the delicious apple pies her granny always makes.

Yes, the breakfasts held a very dear place in the little filly's heart and just minutes after the rooster's call, she was already hopping down the stairs, wondering if she should put some extra syrup on her slice today or just eat it 'raw'. To her surprise, as coming down, she's noticed that Big Macintosh was pulling up another chair to the breakfast table.

'We're havin' a guest Big Mac?' she asked, walking to his brother.

'Eeyup.' replied that in his simple manner. 'He's ahrrived yesterday evenin', not long before you've got home ahctually.'

'How come Ah di'nt meet him then?'

'He rested down early, sugarcube.' replied Applejack, walking out of the kitchen while balancing five plates on her nose. She quickly slid them on the table then continued while moving them in place: 'We didn't want to bother 'im to introduce you two. Which reminds me: Could you please go and see if he's up Mac? Ah'll go help Granny with the pie.'

'No need!' came a merry tune from upstairs. The unknown stallion trotted down with a friendly smile. He, unwitingly caused a slight bit of consternation in the dining room.

He was still wearing the weird-looking, rag-like harness but that wasn't the source of the shock. His mane was now combed, rid of yesterday's matted mess and this revealed - apart from a few brighter strands of hair - that his left ear's top was chipped off. It wasn't a nasty wound. Whatever caused the loss of his upper ear, happened at least a few years ago, but it is always an uneasy feeling when a pony sees the signs of such harsh and obviously painful damage on somepony else. Naturally, Big Mac and Applejack were only moved for a single moment but Apple Bloom couldn't help but stare at the crippled ear.

'I must say, this was one of the best rests I can remember. I'm truly grea...' started the teal stallion, then noticed the filly and followed her eyes to the side of his own head. 'Well, hello there!' he changed after a moment's hesitation. 'My name is Oakleaf!'

It took a few seconds for the little filly to realize she was addressed but then quickly replied blushingly: 'Ah'm Apple Bloom.'

'A pleasure Miss.' nodded the stallion, smiling at the filly; then turned to Applejack. 'As I was saying: I am greatly thankful for your hospitality, but I'd hate to be a bother any further so...'

'Hold ahn right there.' interrupted him the orange mare. 'We insist you stay for breakfast. Mohst of Ponyville is still sound asleep, so it's not like you'd miss anything.' Applejack said, but only partially out of hospitality. She also wanted to stay true to her promise to Twilight and keep eye on this unicorn for at least the time being.

'Thank you!' The unicorn bowed his head once more. 'Can I help with anything?'

'Nah don't you worry. We'll be ready in lickitysplik!' the orange mare replied and quickly went back to the kitchen, soon followed by her brother.

The teal stallion lifted one of his hooves uncertainly as if preparing to go after the mare but stopped, just placing it back on the ground and stared in the kitchen's direction.

Meanwhile Apple Bloom still didn't lift her eyes off of the ear. Various scenarios were racing through her mind from the improbable to the downright impossible. For one, she imagined the stallion performing some kind of elaborate trick where he flies many sharp knives through the air with magic then accidentally loses control of one... She shivered a bit at the image that came to her mind.

Noticing her undying attention, the stallion turned to her once more.

'I don't want to be mean but why are you starring at me like that?' asked the unicorn, pretending not to follow the filly's gaze.

'Oh Ah'm just...' started the filly. She wanted to make a quick excuse, but then again her sister always said she should be honest and it's not like this stallion would be hiding it or anything. 'Ah'm just curious as to how did...' Here she lowered her voice so only the two of them can hear it. '...that happen to you ear.'

The stallion looked up and wiggled his left ear visibly.

'It's a pretty old wound. Got it from a pack of wolves.'

'WOLVES?!' shouted Apple Bloom in amazement, completely forgetting about their company.

'What's goin' on out here?' asked Applejack, almost instantly appearing at the door. 'What are ye yellin' for Apple Bloom?'

'It's nothing, she was just curious how my ear ended up like this.' explained Oak in a pacifying tone.

'Apple Bloom!' The orange pony raised her voice and gave a look to Apple Bloom that (though wasn't on match with the work of "The Stare Master") reassured the filly that she's officially on the bad side of her big sister now.

'It's really nothing.' preserved the teal stallion. 'Curiosity is natural and a good thing to have, in my opinion.' he noted in defence of the filly. 'Still, I doubt the story would be much befitting of a dinning table.'

'Ahlright then.' said Applejack finally, still looking at the filly. 'It'll be just a few more minutes! Make yourself comfortable.'

Apple Bloom - feeling down from the silent scolding - crawled up onto her usual chair and started to stare mulishly at her plate. Hesitantly, the stallion took a seat across from the filly and looked at her with a supportive smile.

'You didn't offend me.' he said simply after about a minute while the filly didn't take her gaze off the plate.

'It's mah sister Applejack.' replied the filly, still not moving her eyes. 'Sometimes she can be so serious about stuff.'

'Well, it may be so but she means well.'

'Ah know she means well.' said Apple Bloom finally looking up. 'It's just that it get so annoying at times. Ah'm trying my best to be good.'

'I see...' nodded the stallion and started thinking. After a bit he raised his head and started flapping his left ear, rerouteing the filly's attention.

'You've said you got that from wolves?' asked the filly quietly. 'Are you an animal tamer?'

'That would be the day...' The stallion chuckled a bit. 'No actually I've got this on a... Well maybe "adventure" is the best word but I don't think the details fit for breakfast, especially for such a young filly.'

'So you're an adventurer?!' Apple Bloom's eyes widened. The possibilities! If she could get a real, honest to Celestia adventurer to help her and the CMC, they could get their cutie marks in no time! And what wicked cutie marks could those be! 'Is your cutie mark a compass? A whip?! Maybe a... a... One of those jungle sword thingies!'

'A machete cutie mark?' asked the stallion bending back in the chair and lifting his gaze to the ceiling, smiling thoughtfully. 'I once knew somepony who would have loved that. But no, I'm not one of those "born to be an adventurer" types.'

'But then what is your cutie mark?' the filly stood up on her chair and tried to look over the table to see stallion's flank.

Normally she wouldn't do this. It was considered very rude to stare at a stranger's flank but she was just too worked up with curiosity. When Oakleaf stood up a little and she saw his flank, she had to catch her breath.

'You've got no cutie mark?!' she asked in terror. The phantom possibility that she may grow up without a cutie mark just materialized in front of her.

'Right, I've forgot.' said the stallion more to himself than to the filly. He lit up the top of his horn and shined it's magical light towards his back, revealing the same strange symbol.

'You! You can do that?! Make cutie marks appear?!' asked Apple Bloom gasping for air. Her worst nightmare just transformed into her greatest hope in front of her eyes. 'You've got to do that spell on me!'

'It doesn't work like that.' said the stallion in a calming voice, then gave the same explanation he gave to the librarian yesterday about his coat's and mark's colour coincidentally being of the same colour. Apple Bloom however didn't pay attention to any of it. This was the single most remarkable experience involving real cutie marks she've ever experienced and - since, on multiple occasions the CMC provided unquestionable, scientific proof that cutie marks are the single most important thing in the know world - she knew that she needed to get this stallion to help them.

'So you are a magician?' asked Apple Bloom with big eyes.

'Well, you could say that I suppose. But I'm better with making spells than casting them.'

'What does that supposed to mean?' Excluding a selected few, driven by academic interest; earth ponies, had little understanding of unicorn magic. Add this to the young age of Apple Bloom and her crude belief that magic is "Just something where a unicorn wrinkles her eyebrows and her horn starts glowing." is understandable.

'Oh, it's not that complicated really. It's like with...' the stallion looked around, searching for a good comparison. 'Apples!'

'Apples?' Apple Bloom knew much about apples. Well, as much as a filly at her age can know about her family's business anyway. And if she was sure of one thing then it was that apples are not magical. Not ordinary ones anyway.

'Apples!' nodded the unicorn obviously proud of the clever and appropriate analogy he just came up with. 'You see, there are ponies who know how to care for apple trees, ponies who can flourish an apple acre! But it takes somepony with a different kind of talent to make delicious pies of them!'

'What does that have to do with magic?'

'Well, I grow apples. Write spells in actuality.' continued Oakleaf. 'Then some pony comes, who knows how to turn them into pie. Or in reality: successfully cast them!'

The unicorn eagerly smiled at the filly, awaiting a sign of understanding but she had none to share. Despite the familiar reference, Apple Bloom had trouble understanding the concept. Somepony being good at casting magic was easy to imagine. No, she didn't even need to imagine, Twilight Sparkle was right there to show it, but writing spells? Don't they all come with the horn?

Before either of them could say anything, a merry, old voice broke the silence coming from the kitchen.

'Make way Macintosh!' said the voice of Granny Smith, moments before entering the room by the side of Applejack who was carrying a pie steaming delicious fumes. The orange pony quickly placed the pie on the table and then picked up the already prepared cutting knife.

Now, despite years of practice, delicate knife handling was never the strong point of Applejack, or generally all of pony kind with the exception of unicorns and alicrons. The fact that she now had to cut the pie five ways instead of just four - when she could be done in two crude cuts - just added to the problem.

'Allow me.' hurried Oak (who courteously stood up as soon as the mares entered the room) to her help and used his horn to cleanly cut the pie in five perfectly equal slices with the movements of an expert. Apple Bloom was reminded of an adventure book where it's hero - a kind hearted but often overly eager unicorn mare - used to expertly cut her cutie mark into her foes' armour, just further lifting her admiration for the new new stallion.

In reality, which this outsider pony apparently didn't know was that even with the three pony races living together in harmony, there were unwritten rules. It was highly rude for example for unicorns to use their magic in a way that would make others appear as if they can't handle a situation without request. Still, it was Apple family standards to always be kind and tolerant to visitors, so the only negative gesture was that Granny Smith looked at the unicorn with oblique eyes.

The rest of the breakfast went mostly usual. Apple Bloom finished with her slice as soon as she could just so she can start asking questions like "Big Mac! Did you ever meet somepony who fought a wolf?" and "Ah wonder, can you make a spell that can take down a wolf in one blow?". The unicorn's retinas gone smaller after the second question but his muzzle remained inexpressive. "What a thing to say Apple Bloom!" Applejack hushed her sister quickly and that was that.

After the breakfast, Oakleaf stood up and bowed his head to the other, thanking them for the food and was just about to bid farewell and leave when the orange mare interrupted him and asked if he'd like to visit Twilight's library. A bit of consideration later the unicorn agreed.

'Can Ah come along?' asked Apple Bloom eagerly. There were so many questions she wanted to ask of the stallion.

'Shouldn't you wash up and visit your friends?' replied her big sister. 'I bet ya'll have a loooong list of things to try today.'

How can she be so blind? Who cares about list of random things THEY'VE come up with? This stallion here is a real adventurer! A sword player, a wolf tamer, a magic-crafter! If anypony can get them their cutie mark, it's him!

On the other hoof, she didn't want to stay on the bad side of her big sister for long so she just hanged her head in as much of an irritated way as she could muster and walked back up the stairs to the bath after mumbling under her nose: "Okaaaay..."

The day was still young though; the filly thought to herself once she left the house to find Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. She may not have the unicorn with her but she knows where he went! Besides, the library usually makes everything suuuuuper long and boring. They'll be stuck there for hours, she doesn't even have to hurry.

She started by heading to Carousel Boutique, to find Sweetie Belle and hopefully Scootaloo too. It was bit weird as she just recently noticed how big Ponyville really is, since Sweetie Belle's parents gone off to yet another - this time a month long - vacation leaving their daughter with her sister. All the unfamiliar roads and houses that she usually saw from far away when walking into town, seemed to double in size and number when she got up close.

She always had an admiration for all the various buildings in town, the way a balcony hangs out here, a small tower rises above the surroundings there, how the roofs gently roll over near the edges on some of them...

When she was younger, despite the usual energetic, unstopable nature of fillies in that age, she once would sit down and watch as ponies built one of the bigger houses near the edge of Ponyville just to see how they work...

But she didn't have time to wonder about them, not now of all times! Oh the looks on her friends' faces! A strange, perhaps not exactly 'deserved' pride rested on her chest, knowing that she just ate breakfast with the redemption of their little group.

Arriving at the town's most elegant boutique, she found that Scootaloo was already waiting there and she seemed pretty restless. As soon as noticing the yellow filly, she emitted some kind of a groan and started to pound on the building's door. A few seconds later a very displeased Rarity appeared in one of the upper floor windows, wearing a towel on her head with eyes as sharp as the grass. She yelled something over her shoulder that the two fillies couldn't make out from the outside but just under a minute their third friend hopped out the front door.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle instantly proceeded to say their trademark Cutie Mark Crusader greetings but Apple Bloom didn't say a word just had a smug little smile on her muzzle. They asked her what's the problem to which she proudly explained that she've just met a unicorn who is not simply an excellent sword swinger, a master of the wilds and worthy of the title arch-mage; but is also a great adventurer who easily has seen enough in his travels to know what they must do to get their cutie marks!

Apple Bloom noted with satisfaction that her prediction of dropped jaws on her friends' behalf did not exaggerate. As soon as she mentioned that the said stallion was currently at the library, Scootaloo shouted: "Then what are we waiting for?!". The orange pegasus obviously did not share her friend's "We've got time." attitude and already reached for her scooter which had their little red wagon tied behind it.

A few minutes later, they were already well on their way to the great tree that gave home to Ponyville's library. They've sped through the - mostly empty - main street, only gathering the attention of a hoofful of shopkeepers who were busy rearranging their shop windows and stalls.

'You never said what kind of cutie mark he has, Apple Bloom.' noted Sweetie Belle, over her own shoulder, afraid of letting go of the wagon to turn around.

'But that's the most amazing part!' her yellow friend replied. 'His cutie mark is invisible!'

'Invisible?!' asked Sweetie Belle turning her head back in disbelief. 'What does that supposed to mean? He's got some sort of spell that makes him invisible?!'

'Ah'm not sure.' replied Apple Bloom thoughtfully. 'Prohbably, but that's not the amazing part! He can make it appear using his magic!'

'But if it's invisible by standard, how come it has a shape that can be made visi...' argued Sweetie Belle but couldn't finish as Scootaloo suddenly shouted:

'HOLD ON!'

The orange filly took a very sharp turn right at the end of the street, that nearly made her two passengers roll out of their wagon. She simply released a wild cheer and continued down the next road without looking back. She didn't really pay much attention to the conversation behind her either right now, she was on a mission! A mission to get from A to B as fast as possible and given the wind in her face, the small rocks and gaps in the road she had to dodge and the awesome turns she could pull of, she just had too much fun to talk at the moment.

When the library was finally in view Scootaloo completely leaned onto the steering rod of her scooter and got ready to make one of her famous pin point stops! She didn't even have to warn the others at this point. They've garbed their wagon as hard as they could. Scootaloo quickly made a 135 degree turn, making the scooter and wagon look like an arrowhead shooting towards the tree. They slid a good five feet more and then stopped just an inch off of a large rock next to the tree. Pin Point stop #9 was a complete success.

The orange pegasus filly jumped off of her scooter with great pride and hastily trotted to the library's door.

'Miss Sparkle!' Scootaloo called out, pushing in the door without knocking. Her friends quickly made their way to the door as well.

'Let me guess,' replied Spike who was running through his morning checklist in a corner of the empty library room. 'you want a book about how to build trains?'

'Uh... No.' replied Sweetie Belle making a note in her head reading: "Cutie Mark Crusaders, Engineers".

'Where's mah sister and Miz Sparkle?' asked Apple Bloom pushing her head into the library next to Scootaloo.

'They? They went off with that weird unicorn. They're probably at the café.' shrugged Spike, focusing on the list in his hands.

'How do you mean "weird"?' asked Sweetie Belle.

'I don't know. He just looked at me funny all the while he was here.' The baby dragon stood up. 'So, what do you need?'

'Nothing.' replied Scootaloo and turned around, pushing her friends out of the library. 'Come on, we need to get to the café!'

With that the fillies left behind the library, as hastily as they came, leaving nothing but a dragon behind who - to put it frankly - was beyond the point of caring about their shenanigans as long as it didn't involve him in some way.

Just a couple of minutes later, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom once again found themselves holding onto the wagon like if it would be their very lives as Scootaloo made #13 of her pin point stops. (Which of course involved her, jumping in front of the scooter, while grabbing tightly onto the steering pole; then hanging herself in the air for a few moments with sheer muscle power, flapping her wings as hard as she can in the opposite direction as the one in which the scooter is going and finally when it's just about to stop, stepping down on the ground with as much of a "What's up?" expression on her face as possible.)

They were just around the corner from the Café. Scootaloo would have gone closer but they've got temporarily banned from the area once before when Scootaloo jumped over a table where two ponies were dining as part of trick #4. They all agreed that it was unfair, after all she didn't even touch the table or anything.

Looking around the corner, the crusaders quickly spotted the purple librarian and the orange farmpony, who sat at the most distant table. It wasn't difficult to notice them really, apart from the crusaders there was only three ponies in the whole area. Two of them were Applejack and Twilight and the last one was the waiter. He seemingly didn't expect customers this soon as his mane lacked that glossy shine that he always applied with some nasty glue like stuff that the fillies thought just smells awful.

Once the waiter disappeared back into the shop, the coast was clear for the fillies.

'I just don't know Applejack.' they've heard Twilight say as they made their way to the table. 'I just feel... I don't know how I feel. I'm afraid I wronged him without a good reason. But I've got a reason... Except I'm not sure.'

The librarian rested her head on the table, next to the newly delivered coffee and fruit salad,looking to the opposite direction as the three fillies.

'Now, now sugarcube.' said Applejack in as sweet a tone as her voice allowed. 'Ah admit; you not telling 'im right away that the book is with the Princess, was not a good thing to do. But...' Applejack stopped and put a hoof infront of Twilight's face. 'Look here, please. That's better. So even thou' that was not the best thing, you did what you thought was best. Ah reckon, that is nothin' to be ashamed of. In fact, Ah must admit that there's something about this unicorn and 'is appearance that just rubs me the wro...' Here she was interrupted by the curious tone of Sweetie Belle.

'Excuse me, Applejack, Miss Twilight. We are looking for a unicorn. Wasn't there one with you?'

Twilight and Applejack both turned towards the fillies, however while Twilight's eyes shown surprise, curiosity and focused on the group; Applejack's eyes closed in a deathly gaze and searched for the image of her little sister, who hid behind her two friends now.

'Apple Bloom.' noted the orange mare in a tone as if she would just acknowledge that apples are a sort of fruit. She obviously knew why they were looking for the unicorn and was working on... No! Crafting with great care, a scolding for her little sister that could be unleashed at any moment.

Right now, Apple Bloom could have kicked Sweetie Belle. Not too hard of course... Maybe a bit... Okay not at all, but still! Why did she have to announce the reason why they came? They could have just had a nice boring little chat with Twilight, maybe ask for tips about book writing - one of the things they've neglected to get to since the first generation of their list of possibilities.

Then and just then, maybe hint at their passing curiosity of where they could find a unicorn who knows how to wield all sorts of weapons, fights beasts as a hobby and incants spells that could put any other magician to shame.

Instead Sweetie Belle had to blurt it all out in the first line. Well done. Now she, will have to listen to her sister's scolding. Apple Bloom hanged her head and stood out from behind her friends, ready to take whatever her sister has to say.

'Oh, if you're looking for Oakleaf, we sent him to Carousel Boutique.' said Twilight before Applejack could open her mouth.

'Really?' Apple Bloom's eyes went wide. This is her chance to dodge a... Come to think of it she wasn't quite sure what a bullet even is, except that Scootaloo once declared that even one of those can't keep up with Rainbow Dash. But this was no time to wonder! This was a time to act. And fast!

'He-hey!' Applejack raised her voice as Apple Bloom gave a more than gentle nudge to her two friends. 'Where do you think you're...?'

'Thank you Miz Sparkle!' shouted Apple Bloom and started galloping back to the corner where their scooter and wagon waited. She quickly added over her shoulder: 'Have a nice breakfast.'

They could hear a few words after that, but not much before going around the corner and blasting off once more to the botique.

'What was all that about?' Twilight was utterly confused by the episode.

'Ah think my sister wants to bother 'im about some adventure story or what not.' replied Applejack who stood up but didn't go after her sister.

'Great, so I've sent another curse upon him. I'm just great at this huh?' Twilight grunted.

'Curse is ah strong word isn't it?' Applejack replied somewhat insulted that her little sister would be referred to as such but continued in a calm tone: 'But you didn't know. Rarity will take care of them, Ah'm sure.'

'Great, so we'll make a full circle now.' moaned Scootaloo over her shoulder once they were clear of the café.

'Well yeah, but how was Ah supposed to know he'll want to go to Rarity's of all places.' defended herself Apple Bloom. The thought of the now postponed scolding completely escaped her mind in the light of their goal.

'Maybe he wants my sister to make one of those big, dark coloured dresses that all the mages wear.' added Sweetie Belle.

'I think that's just for the mages in the oldmare's tales.' cooled her down the orange pegasus filly. 'Who would seriously want to wear something like that all the time?'

They've took a sharp turn around a house after which it took all of Scootaloo's expertise to keep the scooter and wagon intact and not run into the unsuspecting stranger who was walking down the road just ahead of them. Even then, the scooter train and its passengers tripped over once she made the second, correcting manoeuvre to dodge the stallion.

Lucky for them, the stallion heard the screeching noise behind himself and quickly turned around, just in time to catch the falling fillies and their favoured vehicle in a friendly, teal blob of magic.

'You should really look where you're...' started Oakleaf, then noticed Apple Bloom and placed the fillies on the ground. 'Miss... You three didn't happen to be looking for me by chance?'

'Ooooh. He's good!' noted Scootaloo.

'Mizter Oak, sir!' started Apple Bloom but stopped, unsure as what to say.

'We were thinking, if maybe you could...' Sweetie Belle tried to help in but was afraid she would address such a great pony wrongly.

'Apple Bloom told us what an amazing adventurer you are!' Scootaloo broke through finally. 'We though that if there's anypony here or anywhere else who can tell us how to find our special talents, then it's you!'

The stallion did not reply just looked at the fillies for a while with a sense of irk on his face. Apple Bloom noticed that he seemed a lot more serious now than when they had breakfast. He turned around for a moment to lift a scroll he apparently dropped when catching them and only then replied:

'I think Miss Apple Bloom here may have exaggerated my talents from their truth.' he said. The fillies didn't have a single clue what the word "exaggerated" may mean. 'I'm not a soothsayer or medium of any kind. I can't just, I don't know; look into your eyes and say: You are destined to be a cook, you're a swimming champion and you would do great as a portrait painter maybe.' he said while pointing his hoof at Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle respectively on the last part. 'Now, I'd hate to be rude but I've got an important letter and I must get to Caro-Carou... to a boutique. Ladies.'

'But... Hey!' Scootaloo jumped in front of the stallion, forcing him to stop. 'I'm sure it would take just a moment for you to cast a spell that will tell us our true talents!'

'It's so unfair that nopony ever helps us.' sighed Sweetie Belle.

The teal stallion raised his eyebrows. Perhaps he just took pity or realized that he's only going to walk out of this as a villain if he doesn't say something so he huffed a bit and said:

'I presume many grown ups before me told you that you should be 'waiting' for your cutie marks right? Right. Well I can't magically make them obvious but I suppose I might be able to help figure them out. Now, I won't make this easy and it won't come cheap, I can tell you that much right now. The price of my first suggestion shall be...' Here he paused and stepped to the side so the orange filly was no longer in front of him. 'A little ease of mind until I get to the boutique with the strange name on the end of this road. Deal?'

The three crusaders exchanged looks then - somewhat disappointedly - replied in chorus: "Deal." The stallion smiled, more to himself than to the fillies and continued to walk down the road in such an annoyingly normal a pace that it made Scootaloo itch. She could have made the route 8 times by when they finally arrived at the boutique.

The stallion, as if toying with them, thoughtfully examined the shop, looked in a window where the fashionista displayed her most popular designs then brushed his mane back before stepping to the door.

'Oh I almost forgot.' he noted before opening the door. 'My first suggestion to the three of you is this: If you want to find your cutie marks you need not go further than your own bedroom.'

'Huh?' Apple Bloom asked, partially confused, partially annoyed by the useless tip. 'How's that supposed to help us?'

The stallion chuckled slightly then explained: 'In almost all cases, a pony's special talent is something they did most of their lives, but didn't reach a peak in yet. Or simply did not think of it as their talent. You three should look around your own bedrooms for songbooks, photos showing you doing some hobbies, drawings you made or even in your journal if you have one. Find what you enjoy most and you're probably half way there!'

"Well, that didn't help much" noted Apple Bloom in herself. Still, it was more than what most grown ups said and he IS somepony who can make his own cutie mark appear and disappear. He of all ponies should know this stuff.

'Well ahll right.' she nodded. She looked at her two friends, expecting looks that spell "This is why we ran around for?", but instead Scootaloo wrinkled her eyebrows in concentration and Sweetie Belle seemed excited.

'I guess that means I'm first!' the white filly chirped and quickly trotted around the stallion, pushing in the boutique's door, much to the teal unicorn's surprise.'

'Um, good morning!' said the stallion taking but a few steps into the shop. He was quickly forced to skip in further as the other two fillies pushed their way in.

The Carousel Boutique - as always - bathed in an air of class, elegance and all around fabulousness that was unique to it in Ponyville. The only other venture in the town to successfully mimic this feel was the spa. It was an open secret that the Spa too only achieved this, once Rarity decided to give it a make over so it can be worthy to tend to her beauty.

The fashionista herself was just tending to a few rolls of cloth in a corner and didn't seem too happy when she heard the three fillies rush into the store.

'Good Morning, please give me a second.' replied Rarity only giving the stallion the briefest of looks. 'Sweetie Belle, girls! Stop for a moment!'

The fillies groaned at their continued delays but they knew not to go against Rarity so just sat down where they were.

'I thought I told you that I had a very important dress to work on this morning Sweetie Belle! I told you that after dinner I'll have some time for you. Can't you girls please find another place to play until then?' asked Rarity trying to find balance between sounding understanding and voicing her authority.

'But Sis, we were just going to my room! We're going to be quiet. I promise!' the white filly preserved.

'Just to your room?' Rarity had a bad feeling about this. What could drive these three little fillies to lock themselves up in a room? Do they want to try being Interior decorators? Heavens forbid! 'You three just stay put for a minute alright? I have to help the gentlecolt. Don't go anywhere!'

The mare turned around and looked at the stallion, preparing to greet him formally but paused. Her eyes slowly scanned the stranger, taking time to examine the dreadfully ugly patchwork harness, the hastily brushed mane that was just swamped by the signs of long time unkemptness and... Gah, a chipped ear? - when her eyes met the ear, the stallion instantly pulled it back against his head. - What sort of pony came into her beautiful shop? She'll have to correct this... this... There is not an adequate word for 'this'.

'What can I do for you Mr...?' she started poorly hiding her professional disgust.

'Oakleaf...' The stallion stopped. 'Oakleaf "the Vagrant".' he added with a spiritless smile. 'I hate to intrude but two ladies told me that I should come see you about a formal suit, which I need made as soon as possible.'

'Oh.' nodded Rarity while "You'll need a lot more than a suit to make you look couth dear." ran through her mind. 'Well, I'm not exactly specialized for... Stallions. But I can definitely try my best!'

'Actually,' Oak quickly opened his scroll at a specific area then flew his scroll over to the white unicorn. 'one of them, Miss Sparkle said I should show this to you.'

'Twilight?' Rarity was surprised by this turn of events but nonetheless took the scroll and read the part. ' "...For this, I officially summon you to Canterlot Castle..:" ' she mumbled under her nose. "Canterlot Castle? CANTERLOT CASTLE?!" her mind shouted. "Rarity, why is it that every time an unkempt stranger, a villain of fashion walks into you, they turn out to be important ponies?"

A small frown appeared on her muzzle as she quickly finished the rest of emphasized part of the letter, which contained a notice from Princess Celestia herself that the royal treasury shall pay for any formal attire that he needs in order to appear proper before the Royal Council of Magical Practices.

The mare's eyes closed. She heard of the RCMP but even when she spent a few days in the circle Fancypants himself moves in, she could only see maybe two members of it. They were the single most respected group of unicorns in all of Equestria, their expertise and professional attitude was the talk of all the refined circles. To think that a suit, that she herself makes will appear in front them!

At this level, she was not even concerned about getting a name for herself among them. They weren't that much moved by fashion, they were academics. But to have one's work displayed to the eyes of such ponies?! That alone was something many of the greatest names in fashion could only dream of!

Rarity opened her eyes that now were glowing with inspiration and motivation. She needed to make a suit that would put Fancypant's wardrobe to shame!

'Sir, you came to the perfect place!' her voice dinged with each word. With a quick burst of magic, she pushed aside a few half finished pieces and made space in front of her mirrors. Quickly trotting to some mirrors, she pulled out a long measuring tape from a nearby cupboard then turned back to the stallion. 'If you would only stand here, I shall take your measurements and...' she paused looking at the harness that even in the new light of the stallion's status, remained a spit on fashion's face. 'You can also take that... thing off.'

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom just kept quietly moaning all the way, but Scootaloo did not plan to sit through one of Rarity's brainstorming sessions just so she can send them off later. She quietly sneaked to her friends and whispered: "Come on, she's way too busy to notice if we go."

The white filly hesitated, but seeing the fire in her big sister's eyes reassured her that there is no point in staying, so got up and went after the other two whom silently made their way to the stairs.

Once safely up, the fillies quickly gone into Sweetie Belle's room and started searching though her stuff, looking for inspiration. Before heading off, her parents wanted to make sure she'll feel right at home, so they helped moving almost all of her stuff to one of Rarity's guest rooms, effectively transferring the loads of rarely used items she kept around her room.

'You've got a lot of dolls.' noted Scootaloo, opening a drawer with a couple of old figurines in it. 'Maybe you're supposed to be a doll maker?'

'I'm not sure.' Sweetie Belle replied while flipping through her own journal on the bed, eyes racing from page to page. 'I guess I could try.' she gave Apple Bloom a brief look and added: 'To be honest, I hoped he would be a bit more specific or at least obvious.'

'It may still be obhvious!' replied Apple Bloom. She felt wrong for leading her friends into this seemingly fruitless plan. Still, she had hoped it will still turn out well. 'Ah mean, maybe when we find it, there will be some kind of sign.'

'What kind of sign?' Sweetie Belle looked up from her book.

'Apple Bloom's got a point.' nodded Scootaloo, who by now made her way to the bottom drawer and was taking out old drawings. 'Maybe it will just hit you, like with your sister.'

'I don't think I want to be dragged through half of Ponyville by my horn.' Sweetie Belle sunk a bit deeper in her bed. "It would look so ridiculous." she thought. "And everypony knows my sister got her mark like that. If they'd see it they would probably follow me all the way and if my talent turns out to be something lame everypony would be there to see it." The filly returned to her journal with diminished enthusiasm.

Apple Bloom, on the other hoof was working as hard as she could to find her friend's talent. If she could do it, it would prove that her hunch about the stallion was right. She searched the room eagerly with her eyes looking for something, anything that would just yell "Sweetie Belle's cutie mark". Something eye-catching, something...

Suddenly she spotted 'something'! She jumped to a table in the corner which had about a dozen song books on them. They weren't too interesting for Apple Bloom, she knew she probably has them too... Somewhere. Probably in the back of her drawers on the farm or something. Who cares? But above them!

A definitely eye-catching, but equally grotesque sight hung over the song books. It was a crude picture, obviously drawn by a not very experienced pony, but what was important was rather the frame! Apple Bloom didn't see anything like it, in all honesty, Equestrian painters had more than enough justification for not canonizing this frame but it did catch the not very art-savy filly's attention.

The frame was covered in colourful flower petals, radiant rocks and even a gem stone or two. They were all glued on in no particular order. They didn't form the colours of the rainbow, they didn't follow any sort of symmetry and it was more than obvious to the critical eye that who put them on didn't know how much glue is 'too much'. It was one of those things that if a filly makes, will melt the heart of anypony but would be considered pure junk if an art critic would try to take it seriously.

Apple Bloom was not an art critic. In the back of her head she still knew that whatever this tried to be, on a professional level it failed miserably. Yet that part was so deep in her mind and the surrounding areas were so caught up in the uncommon sight that a rush of "what if" clouded her judgement.

'Hay, mahybe your talent is picture framing!' she said, pointing her hoof at the picture.

'Huh?' Sweetie Belle looked up from her journal surprised. "Picture Framing" wasn't even on her list of "All The Possible Things".

'See? You did the frame didn't you?' asked Apple Bloom, pointing at the picture even harder.

'I don't know Apple Bloom.' said Scootaloo, tilting her head. She was now looking at the picture while standing in a sphere of open space among various drawings, dolls, toys, miniatures and two music boxes that she took out of her friend's cabinet searching for cutie materials. 'That doesn't look very...' the pegasus searched for the best words but couldn't finish as Sweetie Belle interrupted:

'That could be it!' Sweetie Belle seemed very relieved. She didn't feel any "tick" that would suggest this is the one true talent she should jump after, but no pony really said there would necessarily be one. Besides, Rarity told her that when they had that huge fight long ago, when she wanted to adopt Applejack as her big sister, Rarity's eyes were opened by that picture she made with the blue diamonds! That's technically framing right? Her sister still has that in her room! It really COULD be her special talent! - It HAS to be it! 'Rarity still has one of my self-framed drawings in her room!'

'Then we gotta test it!' Apple Bloom cheered with zest.

'We should go to the market and get some materials first.' replied the white filly and energetically jumped out of her bed, her spirits restored.

The two fillies quickly rushed out of the room leaving the pegasus behind. Scootaloo took another look at the bizarre frame work then shrugged and hurried after her friends.

Meanwhile, downstairs Rarity was already done with taking measurements but the stallion was still chained there as she drew newer and newer sketches of tailoring poetry. Or as she tried to rather. Rarity was a highly gifted fashionista and could deal with professional competition with ease. Usually she could even defeat stress but the prospect of having her work shown before the RCMP and that she was admittedly more experienced with mare fashion put her on an edge she rarely reached. This lead to her designs going a bit beyond fabulous.

'How about this?' she asked, showing the sketch of a suit that would easily befit the most highest of royal stewards, even in the olden days when Celestia and in fact most of Equestria was not bored of pointless pompousness yet. Her mane was a bit out of shape, obviously she turned her head a lot in the past few minutes. A tear drop sized pool of sweat grown slowly, trapped behind her horn.

'I deeply appreciate the effort you put into this,' started Oakleaf. 'but I told you: I want something simple. Look, do you have a catalogue of some kind? Perhaps I could show you along what lines I would like to go.'

'I mostly make dresses for mares so...' started Rarity and summoned a hoofkerchief.

'How about that?' asked the teal pony turning towards an open book on a nearby table that shown a mare and stallion dancing in very old clothes. Around them were small printed notes pointing at their apparel.

'Oh that's nothing.' Rarity shook her head. 'It's almost one and a half centuries old by now. I just have it for research.' she explained while the stallion walked over to the book.

'May I?' he asked.

Rarity nodded with a shrug and the stallion closed it to look on the title page that had a pure white unicorn wearing various elegant jewels, a black tuxedo with trousers, a top hat, fancy cuff-links and necktie while sporting a cane - a very old, very silly piece of high society apparel that forced it's owner to walk on his hind legs alone.

Ironically, though the book took itself very seriously as a study; wearing the title "The Fashions of the Future" proudly upon it's face; that one cane could easily promote it as a comedy novel or a guide for the theater as it was mostly - if not only - used as a prop in comedic sketches, aiming to parody the well-to-do of olden times or serve tricky purposes in stunt performances.

'I would dare say this to be an extraordinary coincidence,' started the stallion turning back to the mare with the book. 'because I know I had a copy of this exact gallery. Hold on just a moment! I think I know just the thing!' he quickly started flipping through the pages of the book, searching for something.

The three fillies watched as the stallion searched, followed by the white tailor mare's woeful eyes, who was in deep dismay seeing how this stallion would rather choose some ancient vogue instead of her inspired designs.

Scootaloo tapped her friends on the shoulder and pointed towards the boutique's door. As silently as possible the crusaders made their way to the door and left the two grown ups behind.

'Hey girls!' chirped a merry voice almost instantly as they exited the house. The pink party maker of Ponyville stood in front of them with a smile wider than a tub and her post-card-basket-hat-thingamajig on her head. 'Do you want to come to a party this afternoon? Oooh you just gotta! There's this new pony in town! He's s unicorn. You might have seen him. He has this blueish, greenish coat.'

'Uh, hey Pinkie.' replied Sweetie Belle when Pinkie Pie finally stopped.

'He's actually in the shop right now.' noted Scootaloo.

'He is?!' Pinkie skipped to a window and looked into the boutique. 'Huh, he seems older with his hair back like that.' she tilted her head, then shrugged: 'Oh well! I guess I should find a few older tunes for the party then! Here!' Pinkie yanked her head, somehow managing to drop out exactly three cards from the basket on the top of it. 'See you three at the party!'

On that note she jumped to the door and walked in, happily greeting the two ponies inside.

'Should we go? Ah'm not sure if we'll have time.' asked Apple Bloom turning to her friends as they continued towards their scooter and wagon, Sweetie Belle carrying the three cards with her magic.

'I guess we'll just see.' shrugged the white filly and placed the cards in the wagon, before sitting in.

' "Cutie Mark Crusaders, Picture Framers"?' turned back Scootaloo once pulling her scooter in the right direction. The three grinned and repeated the line adding a powerful cheer at the end, then the pegasus launched off and they were speeding down the streets of Ponyville again.

All in a day's work for the valiant Cutie Mark Crusaders.

A Party

Parties are the best thing that ever sparked out of anypony’s mind. Fact. Who would disagree? When done right, they have snacks, drinks, music, games, contests and most importantly: Ponies! Indeed when a party is done right, it means a good time to all!

Naturally, if somepony’s special talent is throwing parties then it is normal that her surroundings put two and two together coming to the simple, pure and utterly straightforward conclusion:

If she makes a party: Be there.

Ponyville learned this lesson about its pink heart of gold long ago, so naturally the house she secured for the party this afternoon was already filled with ponies of all age groups. Ponies that weren’t there were either working or resting. Though if there would have been any such pony in the town, sugar allergy would have been a good excuse as well, because the air wasn’t sweet simply because of the friendly atmosphere.

The pink mare obviously did not forget the fact that the guest of honour in today’s party is somepony who was introduced to the powerful magic of cupcakes only yesterday. The house was filled with many various, colourful baked sweets, in fact trying to list them all out by name would take a true expert in the field of bakery.

When she was new in town Twilight Sparkle couldn’t quite imagine how her friend could even afford to basically give away all these sweets. Of course she had more than enough time to learn that unique feel small towns have but cities like Canterlot and Manehatten lack. While in a big city money speaks, in a small society like this, everypony helps out each other so no pony really has to lack.

This spirit was the product and fuel of any festivities and the reason why events like Winter Warp-Up and Fall of Leaves - that would look like manual labour for any city pony - is transformed into a town festival.

This silent, open, helpful and most of all: friendly pact is what Twilight accused herself of breaking. It bursting around her into a huge colourful firework in the form of a Pinkie party didn’t exactly help the librarian ease her mind in this matter.

Going to sleep last night, she was hoping she’d wake up with a cleared mind but instead all her mistakes united and fell upon her as a singular mass of doubt.

First she questioned her friends and decided to change them by enrolling them into a book club! Why wouldn’t she be happy with what she had before? Then she acted towards that poor stallion as if he would be a criminal! Where did her open mindedness go? Finally she even distrusted one of her best friends, thinking Pinkie would just ruin a petty little balance that probably wasn’t even necessary! Why is she such a horrible friend?

She quietly grunted to herself, sitting in a corner at a table. Around her the party was as lively as any other Pinkie Party, in fact a bit even more! Everypony was laughing or singing along as Princess’s “Equestrian Rhapsody” filled the room, except Twilight and Applejack who just went off to “Find somepony”.

The song usually would have made the librarian feel better, if for nothing, else then for the fact that she was a great fan of the book the popular song is based off: “The Sackless Regicider”, a historical fiction about a young colt serving as court scribe, who was seduced by a foul witch and tricked into killing his Queen many-many years ago, even before the union of the three races.

Today however, the story of a pony who against his will betrayed his people and was horribly punished for it, didn’t bode well with the anxious mare.

Twilight was staring at her orange friend’s untouched glass on the table, lost in her thoughts when Pinkie Pie’s voice somehow broke through the noise generated by everypony yelling “He’s just a poor colt, from a poor family!” at the same time.

'Twi!' she called out merrily to her purple friend but her voice sounded slightly worrisome. 'Don’t you like the party? I mean everypony is having such a blast! Do you want some more punch?'

'It’s not the party Pinkie. She’s concerned about the new pony.' explained Applejack who brought the party pony here.

'Applejack please...' Twilight said but her, weak faltering voice was overpowered by seven powerful “NO!”-s shouted by the crowd. Twilight shunned her ears back and yelled over the coming chorus: 'I don’t want to talk about it!' She stood up and added: 'I’ll go get some fresh air.'

'But!' started Pinkie before being quickly interrupted by Applejack:

'Mahybe she’s right. A little air will do her good.'

Stepping out of the house, Twilight looked to the west to get a sense of time. Pinkie’s afternoon parties usually lasted at least until sundown and the lavender mare had to note with a slight sense of frustration that it won’t come for about three more hours.

While looking at the sun she also noticed the crown of the tree-house she called her home. For a moment she played with the thought of perhaps just going home and taking a long bath, but walking out on her friend’s party would just make her an even worse friend. She turned her back on the sun but a moment later stepped back, startled.

Coming out of the house, she didn’t notice but now she could see that Oakleaf was sitting against the wall across the door. He hung his head with eye closed shut, ears drawn back and eyebrows wrinkled, she could even see that his body was shaking a bit.

'A-Are you alright?' she asked instinctively.

'Huh?' the stallion’s head flung up instantly and looked in Twilight’s direction. He quickly jumped up and even his body stopped shaking. 'Sorry, did you need me?' his voice stumbled slightly while talking but his face cleansed itself of all emotion.

'Oh no, I just came out for a little air.' answered Twilight apologetically. “What could it be that moved him so much? Oh I hope it’s not the tome. But it must be! What else could it possibly be? Now look at what you’ve done! Get out of here.” she whipped herself mentally and took a few steps towards the door. 'I’m so sorry for disturbing you. I’d better go.'

'No, you didn’t disturb me!' replied Oakleaf and shunned his ears back again. 'I’m sorry if I made you think that, it’s just this...' his voice dropped before the end of the sentence. 'Well just the crowd and...' He sighed and paused to gather his thoughts. 'It’s just this whole place.' he explained and gestured with his head around the houses. 'It has an air where you can feel that somepony might just burst into a song at any moment.' he paused. 'And not just during these parties. Not sure you understand...'

'Actually, I think I do understand.' Twilight stopped and closed the door of the house from the outside. She knew exactly what the stallion meant. The joy and carefree happiness of Ponyville was one of the things that made he most afraid recently.

It felt as if she lost something - or even worse: never had that one special thing that makes the other villagers who they are. Somehow the way the stallion noted the cloudless mentality of the town, the shadowy thought that lurked in the back of her head finally took form. She was afraid that she will become like she was back in Canterlot, cutting herself of off friends, concentrating more on books and stunides than on spending time with the ponies that mean the most to her.

'I used to know somepony...' the stallion started then paused for a moment. 'Well not a pony, but someone who would have loved living in a place like this.' he explained, then a little silence fell.

'Was he a Kiang?' asked Twilight.

'No she wasn’t. But I don’t think I want to talk about it.' another silence fell but this time he himself decided to break it. 'I meant to ask: how exactly can you live with that dragon?'

'Spike? What do you mean?'

'Well I’ve seen my share of what dragons usually do. They aren’t exactly the best librarians. Or pony friends.'

'Spike is different.' shook her head the lavender mare. 'He may be a bit... Difficult on occasion but very rarely. He grew up here, among us. Up in Canterlot in fact.'

'I see.' nodded Oakleaf in slight disbelief.

'If you don’t mind me asking, what did you mean about “Seeing your share of dragons?” It sounded a bit... personal.'

'It was.' replied Oakleaf with a weak smile. 'Well more personal for the Kiang. They didn’t live like you do here. There were two groups of them where I came from, both distrusting the other. I suppose if you’re a librarian you know your history, the windigos in particular? The Kiang didn’t exactly know what they were before I met them with my books and history. They thought they were some kind of evil spirits but didn’t think further. Only thing they cared for was that a huge blue dragon called Frost kept the windigos away, in exchange for offerings. He of course knew why the windigos came back over and over, but rather lived in comfort and respect than to help them work out their differences. In fact he even praised the clan which could give him more, strengthening their rivalry. All in all, I don’t have the highest expectations of dragons.'

'Wow, well...' Twilight paused. 'Okay, many dragons are like that. Maybe even most. But Spike is an exception. He defeated his greed when it came upon him. He pushed back his nature... He is a great friend.'

'I’ve probably seen stranger things so I won’t argue, but allow this old fool to keep his caution.' Oakleaf replied with a fake smile, his eyes searching the mare’s face, perhaps for signs of doubt or other such, but didn’t seem to find what he looked for.

Twilight didn’t like the stallion’s stare but didn’t want to be rude so just wrinkled her eyebrows.

'Excuse me.' Oakleaf’s searching gaze quickly returned to the mares eyes. 'Old habit.'

The stallion sighed and looked away down the street, examining the houses.

Twilight felt terrible again. This stallion, looking down the street, didn’t feel anything like the one who fell out of the sky, cheering. Nor the stallion who merrily came in the library this morning.

The moment she gave him the letter this morning felt exactly like when she took away his tome. The way he looked up from the letter and asked if his book was indeed with the Princess was terrible. The way he just took a breath and didn’t argue about it further was even worse if that’s possible.

She needed to take her mind off of this so she said the first thing that came to her mind:

'Did Rarity make a suit for you then?'

' "Rarity"? Ah yes that was her name.' nodded the stallion to himself then turned around to the librarian. 'I think I might have broken something in her.' he said with a sarcastic smirk. 'She insisted on designing me an extravagant suit but that didn’t really work out. So I’ve shown her in a gallery a picture of what I had in mind and...' The stallion chuckled a bit. 'I don’t know what your friend has against hats, or just Fedoras specifically, but she definitely asked me at least four times if I really want “...A Fedora?” ' - he explained mimicking a special voice of disbelief, oh so unique to the fashionista. He chuckled a bit then took a brief look inside through the window. 'Well they’re slowing down...'

'You want to go in?' asked Twilight.

'No, not really.' he shook his head. 'Anyway, your friend said she’ll have the suit ready by tomorrow morning so I’ll probably leave then. Not even sure if I will come back after then, given the situation. Funny how my welcome party is probably my goodbye party as well.'

“Given the situation.” She probably ruined the opinion of this stallion regarding all of Ponyville. Can she sink no deeper?

'I feel a bit bad though.' continued the stallion. 'Here I am, in your town, you obviously feel terrible for something and I keep on talking about myself.'

'I’m not feeling bad.' lied Twilight.

'Please.' the stallion raised his eyebrows and forced a supportive smile on his face. 'You are switching your stare between my eyes very quickly, you are taking unnaturally long breaths, your facial muscles are lax, you came out of one heck of a party from what I can see and most of all: You said you understand what I meant when I complained about the joyfulness of this place, with sincere agreement in you voice.

Twilight felt thrown off as she realized how all the proof listed fitted on her. Being read like a book opened way for a torrent of feelings but gladness, relief and happiness was not among them. Is she truly this obvious? A complete stranger can read her like this? Can he also see how bad a friend she is? How does he gather the nerve to read into others like this?

Her feelings are her own! She will share them with whom she wants, when she feels ready! In fact she shouldn’t even be here. She didn’t feel like partying, she just allowed Applejack to talk her into it! “Pinkie’s party will make you feel all better, ya hear Twi?” Well she isn’t feeling better! Actually she just feels worse!

'I don’t think I want to talk about it.' replied the mare coldly.

As if feeling the sudden drop of mood outside, the pink party maker struck her head out the door. Twilight turned away from the stallion and looked at her friend.

'Oh there you are Twilight!' she chirped merrily while her puffed up hair bounced around carelessly from the sudden movements. 'I’ve got a huge surprise, just for yooouuu!'

'For me?' asked the unicorn mare, her voice giving space to a little surprise in the cold. This wasn’t her party.

'Yuh huh!' Pinkie nodded glaringly. 'Oooh! I just can’t hold it back! You know when yesterday you came into Sugarcube Corner with all those books? Well I saw that you had one about starting book clubs sticking out of your bag a little! I first thought you just bought it for the library but then wondered: Who in Ponyville would want to read a book about starting book clubs? And Ahhh! It came me! You! You would! So I asked Mr. Oakleaf if he’d like a welcoming party, tied together with a surprise crowd gathering party! For you! So you can start your very own club easily!'

Twilight’s eyes twitched a bit.

'Now come on in silly! I’ve already passed out cards so everypony can know about your club!'

Twilight remained silent.

'Are you alright Miss Sparkle?' asked Oakleaf and walked around the mare so he can look at her.

'I didn’t ask for this.' Twilight noted simply.

'Is there something wrong Twi?' asked Pinkie concerned. 'I thought you’d be happier.'

'Well I’m not!' The librarian stomped on the ground with one hoof. 'I don’t...' “I don’t want you to patronize me.” “I don’t deserve your help.” “I don’t want to be here.” “I don’t even know if I want a book club anymore!” So many thoughts ran through Twilight’s mind, but she didn’t want to say any of them. She just wanted to get some peace and quiet. She wanted to be alone. 'I’m sorry but I’m not feeling too well. I think I’ll go home. I’m sorry.'

Twilight quickly trotted past the two ponies, not giving chance for any resistance and not looking back. Why did Pinkie have to pass out those cards? The unicorn knew her friend was liable to take liberties when it comes to making others happy, even unwittingly going against somepony’s will. Right now though? She didn’t care. All she wanted was to get far away from that stupid party and be alone.

When she knew she was out of sight, she raised her tempo and particularly galloped the rest of the way to her home. Her mind shouted at her all of her accusations, her rudeness, her lack of trust in her friends, her negative assumptions and that she is slowly returning to her isolated, Canterlot self.

She opened the door of the library with such force it opened all the way and hit the wall.

'Hu-uh?' asked Spike in confusion. He was snoozing in a corner with a scroll in his hands with some kind of sketch on it.

Twilight didn’t stop, just trotted past the dragon and up the stairs. She quickly made her way into the bathroom and locked the door.

Her eyes felt puffed up and sore, her vision blurred, she used her magic to start the water in the tub. She lifted up her rubber duck and flung it across the room. She wanted to throw it at something but at the last moment she didn’t release her magic’s hold instead just placed the innocent yellow bathroom decoration on the sink.

'Are you alright Twilight?' came Spike’s voice from the door soon enough.

'I’m taking a bath!' she yelled out the door but her voice chocked up, trying to sound indifferent.

'You sure? You sound a bit off!' replied back the baby dragon with concern in his voice.

'I’m just feeling a bit sick, don’t worry...'

'Should I get you something Twilight?' asked the dragon through the door.

'N-no... Thank you Spike. I think we should close up the library for today. If you want you can go off, Pinkie’s party is still going so...'

'Are you really sure you don’t need anything Twilight? You sound really bad.' asked the dragon a final time.

'Yes. I’m sure.'

'Okay then...' the dragon paused. 'Well I guess I’ll leave you to it then. I’ll be at the party then, if you need me... I’ll be there. Good night!'

'Good night Spike...' she whispered, the dragon probably didn’t even hear it.

What did she do now? She sent off her oldest friend and faithful assistant. The dragon who was with her everytime she needed help! Why couldn’t she just open that damn door and hug him? That would have made her feel better. It’s too late now to go after him. Well he’s probably still here but... She doesn’t deserve him. She doesn’t deserve anypony.

Twilight closed the water off and without a halt stepped into the tub. The water was very hot but she didn’t really care about it anymore. With a brief burst of magic, she turned the light off and sunk neck-deep into the water.

The hot liquid swept through her fur, smoldering her skin underneath. The physical sensation mixed with her pent-up emotions was too much for her to take and the held back tears started pouring out of her eyes, creating two small streams, running around her muzzle and finally mixing into the hot bath water.

'Why am I turning into such a terrible friend?' she said to herself.

Next morning went by long and sour for Ponyville’s librarian. She didn’t leave the house at all and spent most of her time in the bedroom. She tried to get started on “The Black Stallion” again but her thoughts over powered her and by the fifth page she wasn’t sure what she read before. She moved on to the detective story “The Curious Disappearance of Mayor Ribbon Glow” to try and concentrate her mind but it was of no use.

Her assistant picked up on her depression quickly and stayed in the house as well. Twilight seemed to be just all the more nervous when he was around so he just stayed downstairs in earshot and went through his morning checklist. When done, he took out an empty scroll and started sketching to pass the time. Only time he went into the bedroom was to give his friend breakfast.

Just as noon was approaching and the dragon started wondering if he should disturb Twilight once more to ask her about lunch; somepony knocked at the door.

'Coming!' he shouted stolidly and walked over to open the door. His mood experienced a sensation of quickly lifting then droping back when he opened the door.

'Is Twilight home?' asked Rainbow Dash, standing in the door. Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity all stood behind her.

'Uh yeah...' started Spike. He knew that they were probably here to cheer up Twilight but he was unsure how she would feel about that right now. 'I don’t think she wants visitors though.'

'Well from what Applejack and Pinkie told us she needs visitors.' countered Rarity.

'Sitting in her room won’t do her any good.' added Applejack.

'Alright, alright! I’m with you.' Spike backed away from the door. 'All I’m saying is that she may not be in the best mood right now.'

The five ponies walked in behind each other and after Spike noted that their friend is upstairs in her bedroom, they continued there.

'Come in Spike.' came Twilight’s voice weakly through the bedroom door after they knocked.

'We’re not Spike! Guess again!' replied Pinkie misschievously, keeping the door closed.

'Pinkie, this is not the time.' rebuked Rainbow and pushed in the door.

'Girls?' asked Twilight surprised.

By her standards, the unicorn’s room was a complete mess. A large number of papers laid on the floor, folded into various shapes. The ruins of a half eaten breakfast were on her drawers and the books she bought two days ago in Canterlot now laid in a heap on the ground with the exception of two which were now laid open on her bed and in turn, on her as well, since she was resting in her bed and zealously staring at the ceiling before her friends arrived. Owloysius himself was sitting over the end of her bed, guarding over her.

'You came to me?' Twilight’s voice sounded glad for a moment but then she looked down. - Please don’t do this... Just. Leave please. - she turned around in the bed making the two books break the coming silence with respectfully quiet ‘thud’s as they slid off her blanket and the bed, to the wooden floor.

'A-Are you alright Twilight?' asked Fluttershy finally, but pulled back her head quickly, feeling awkward for being the one to speak up.

'Please Twi,' said Applejack and walked closer to her friend. 'whatever it is you can tell us.'

'No it’s just...' The purple unicorn pulled the blanket higher and shunned her ears back. 'I’m just a terrible friend. Nothing else to it.'

'Pfffft.' Rainbow snorted, chuckling. This gaining a stern look from Applejack, Rarity and even the owl. 'What?'

'You’re a great friend dear,' smiled Rarity at her purple friend, though Twilight wasn’t even looking in their direction. 'whatever would make you think otherwise?'

'I don’t want to talk about it!... Please leave.' Twilight sighed loosening her grip on the blanket a little.

'She thinks she’s a bad friend for trying to change you by making a book club.' said Spike suddenly. All heads turned to the dragon now, even Twilight’s whose eyes now mirrored fear and anger. 'I’m sorry Twilight but they have to know so they can tell you how silly this all really is.'

'How did you even know?' asked Twilight, sitting up with a destructive flame in her eyes.

'You told me two days ago. Before you came up with the whole book club thing. Then yesterday night I didn’t really feel like going to the party after talking to you... And I heard you crying in the bath... You talked a lot. It was a bit scary.'

'You spied on me?' Once again, tears started building up in the unicorn’s eyes. She was utterly betrayed and her horrible idea revealed to her dearest friends.

'Hold on!' Rainbow raised her wings to hush everypony in the room. 'I don’t get this. "change us"? With a book club? Am I missing something here or this doesn’t make any sense at all?'

'I...' started Twilight. 'I didn’t like how I couldn’t talk with you about books so I thought I’d start this book club so you might get into them.' this time around it was Pinkie’s turn to chuckle.

'And that is... All of it?' asked Rainbow, raising her eyebrows and lowering her wings at the same time. 'Seriously? All this drama about that?'

'She also thought she is becoming distrus...' started Spike but Rarity interrupted him:

'Thank you for breaking the ice Spike, but I think we should let her talk her mind now.'

Owloysius added a ‘whoo’ and nodded wisely while the five ponies gathered around the bed, accidentally destroying a few paper figurines and causing Twilight to sink deeply under her blanket.

'Come on sugar cube. Ya’ll need to get it off your chest.'

'I just...' the librarian took a big breath and turned to her pink friend. 'I didn’t tell you everything about Oakleaf. And I should have. I though you would over react...'

'Okay now I just know I missed something.' stopped them again Rainbow. 'Who in the hay is “Oakleaf”?'

'Oh he’s just a unicorn who’s good at making spells and comes from really, REALLY far away and was trying to get back to Equestria all his life.' explained Pinkie swiftly as if just summarizing a character from a book she read. Seeing Twilight’s confused stare she just smiled and nodded her head in Applejack’s direction. 'AJ told me after you left yesterday.'

'Great, I think I’ll just sit here and act as if I knew what you’re all talking about from now on. Okay? Okay.' With that, Rainbow sat down besides the bed.

'Aren’t you mad that I didn’t tell you Pinkie?' asked Twilight.

'Well I was a bit surprised,' Pinkie shrugged. 'but Applejack explained that you didn’t want me to make some huge party and put him in an awkward situation... Kinda like yesterday when announcing the book club without even asking you. Sorry about that. Don’t worry though, I told everypony that it’s not going to happen!'

'It’s not?' asked Fluttershy, suddenly bursting her bubble of silence. 'Uh-I mean... Never mind.'

'What is it dear?' Rarity turned to her. 'Don’t be so shy.'

'Well I just thought it was actually a very nice idea... But you don’t have to make it Twilight, if you don’t want to I was just... You know.'

'Fluttershy is right!' beamed Pinkie. 'I was actually looking forward to it a lot! Maybe that’s why I was so hasty in giving it a kick-start.'

'Wait, you mean you like books?' asked Twilight turning to the pink pony again.

'Well duh! There weren’t many things to do back home on the rock farm, so I always asked mom to read me stories! The ones we had were a bit boring though, full with poor country girls who save up a lot of money, buy a ticket to the Gala and meet their prince and live happily ever after. Prrrrrbbt.' Pinkie blown on her tongue to give weight to her disappointment. 'Not like the ones I read later! Those had adventure and mischief!'

'I'll let you know that "Grey Rose" is a very touching story! Hmmph!' Rarity replied, referring to a very old folk tale that went exactly the way Pinkie just described with the poor peasant girl and the Gala.

'See Twi?' said Applejack with a friendly smile. 'It was a great idea after all!'

She had to admit, her friends support made her feel a lot better and seeing them show such support for the idea of a book club brought back the spark of inspiration to her heart... But she still couldn’t shake off the feeling that she doesn’t deserve such support.

'But I was still selfish.' she hung her head.

'Please dear, selfish?' Rarity smiled. 'Like when I nearly destroyed Rainbow’s chance to show her incredible talent at the best young fliers competition? It was selfish of me but I realized it, apologized and you don’t see me mopping about saying how I’m a terrible friend!'

'Yeah well maybe you should be.' noted Rainbow but instantly took it back when everypony looked at her. 'I’m kidding, I kid!... I guess I was sorta selfish too when I acted like some sort of superhero, upstaging everypony.'

'Or me,' said Pinkie suddenly. 'when I didn’t ask you about advertising the book club!'

'Or me,' added Applejack. 'when Ah thought it to be more important to show to everypony that Ah can handle anything and Ah didn’t want to accept help despite obviously needing it.'

'Or when I... uhh...' started Fluttershy but couldn’t finish. After a few seconds of silence the other five broke out in laughter.

'Point is darling, we all act a bit selfish sometimes.' smiled Rarity. 'Or as it seems... Well we don’t expect you to be Fluttershy.'

'We ahll make bad decisions and act strangely sometimes.' added Applejack.

'But we always try and improve, for each other and ourselves.' nodded Rarity.

'And since we’re friends we’re here to support each other!' added Pinkie in a merry tune.

'And so you can boast about how awesome this one friend of yours is! I kid!' chuckled Rainbow.

Tears started dripping from Twilight’s eyes, but this time not from sadness. These tears no longer said: “You are a terrible friend!” and “You should just leave them alone so they can find better friends!”. Instead they cheered: “You are the luckiest pony in Ponyville!” and “You have the best friends in the world!” A glimmering thought of unworthiness remained in the back of her head but she couldn’t care less about it as she looked at the smiling faces of her friends who took time off their day just to come and cheer her up!

'You girls are the best!' she said, not even trying to hold back her tears anymore and jumped out of the bed to give a big hug to each of them.

Spike didn’t move from the door during the entire episode, just hung onto the door frame and waited to see how Twilight will turn out.

'Uh... I’m sorry I listened in on you last night.' he said once the ponies calmed down.

'Spike!' Twilight said the name with a strange mixture of limitless gladness and equal regret. 'How could I be so mean to you?' Twilight used her magic to lift the unsuspecting dragon from the door and flew him to herself. If not for her faithful assistant, maybe she would have just sent away her friends and who knows what would have come of that? She would surely be feeling miserable right now.

'He-hey! Quit it!' protested the dragon as Twilight gave him too a big hug in the air and nuzzled him.

'Thanks for staying with me Spike. Thanks for everything.' the purple unicorn said.

'You did wonderfully Spikey.' agreed Rarity and nuzzled the dragon’s head once Twilight put him down. Spike had to admit that this day seemed to turn out a lot better than what he had expected.

'Hey! I’ve got a GREAT idea!' hopped up Pinkie. 'Since everypony seemed to agree that a book club would be a great, idea and we are in the library anyway, why don’t we celebrate by holding the first meeting? I mean, if you want to, Twilight. Wouldn’t you like that?'

'Actually that would be awesome!' shined up Twilight. This was better that everything she hoped.

'Uh... sorry but that won’t fly with me.' said Rainbow. 'I’ve uh... promised Tank I’d spend today with him.'

'I’m terribly sorry but I still need to finish a few dresses dear.' Rarity shook her head as well. 'But it is fine, you can have it without me! Maybe if you tell me when next one will be I can make a little time.'

'I’ve got time.' noted Fluttershy supportively.

'Well time Ah’ve got too, but frankly I’m as hungry as a horse so if you don’t mind...' began Applejack before being stopped by Spike.

'I’ve got that covered!' he said proudly. 'Just tell me what you want and I’ll get it for you! It’s the least I can do to make this work!'

'Actually if you don’t mind, I’d like something too.' said Twilight, quickly followed by Pinkie and Fluttershy. The four of them summarized something simple, not wanting to overburden the eager little dragon.

'Aaaalright, will get it done!' Spike said and left the room.

Moments later Rarity and Rainbow said their goodbyes as well and left the room. Twilight by now locked all of her previous bad thoughts away in the back of her head and was running through lists of stories that should be interesting to start on.

'Ah almost forgot!' Applejack broke her friend’s line off thought suddenly and took off her hat, revealing a small square piece of paper. 'I’ve invited our stallion friend back to stay last night but he had to leave with a train this morning. He asked me to give you this whenever I can.'

'Oh?' Twilight gently lifted the piece of paper from the hat and it was instantly obvious that it was an envelope. Not that envelopes would have been unheard of in Equestria but ponies usually just used scrolls to convey messages unless it was something formal or celebratory.

A sinking feeling of her bad behaviour towards the stallion and the fact that she never got to apologize properly took hold of her for a moment, but then she looked at the smiling face of Pinkie who was searching through one of the bookshelves and Fluttershy and Applejack and somehow... It seemed to matter less all of a sudden.

She flew the envelope over to her cabinet for later reading, she didn’t want to get distracted now that she finally had a chance to talk about her dearest passion with the ponies who are most dear to her.

She proceeded to loudly list out a few of her favourite stories, hoping the other three would recognize some of them, while also tracing back the lists of stories she organized in her mind back when the book club was her only worry.

Back when she was just as carefree as now.

Interview with a Wanderer

'The train at Platform 01 is leaving the station!' declared the voice of Canterlot Central’s station master, shouting from the many speakers around the station’s platforms. 'For your safety, please stay clear of the platform.'

“Zealously obeying the raspy voice, the cars of the train on Platform 01 winced, then slowly but surely started to make their way out of the station in a nice orderly fashion. One would have though they were trained professionally to move in perfect files.” thought to herself the beige earth pony sitting on a station bench next to the platform. “Oh I am just terrible!” she chuckled.

She smiled after the leaving train and moved about a bit to find a more comfortable pose. Once she was satisfied with her seat she reached into her reticule and took out this morning’s copy of ‘The Equestrian’ which of course was the daily newspaper renowned as the most reliable source of news from all of Equestria, not to mention it’s connection with the Royal Book Association of Canterlot which was shown in the form of selected short stories being included on every Sunday’s issue. With a quick movement of her head, she threw back her slightly graying, weavy brown mane and opened the paper.

Though the pony at Platform 01 loved these literature rich issues the most and today’s day sadly happened to fall on Friday in the calendar, this didn’t stop her from looking at the fifth page with a certain, satisfied smile.

“It would appear that Miss Scarlet Pen puts an extraordinary amount of faith into the belief that she’s the intellectual return of revolutionary authors such as Ink Weave, Bastion ‘the Word Painter’ or even the mysterious writer of the famous ‘Draconequus’ Saga.” - began the vitriolic article in the middle of the ‘Theatre’ column of the ‘Arts’ section. - “However, I would like to remind her and the reader of this article that this isn’t so. To beautifully summarize this: one needs but refer to the simply laughable review she wrote for this very paper, in this Tuesday’s issue (Page 5 Theater Column ‘Marble Raindrops’) on the topic of ‘Marble Raindrops’. If one saw the play, it should be obvious that this story is rather about the relationships and everyday dramas of the side characters - whom she neglects to even mention - than the actual woes and redemption of our protagonist, who serves but to allow us an outsider’s view into a much richer story.”

The beige pony chuckled a little, imagining the face of Miss Scarlet Pen who is probably reading this very article right now. She continued to read: “Sadly, it is difficult to tell much about the true essence of this play without robbing the potential viewer of the adventure of discovering it for themselves. Because of this I shall not even try. I will instead just say: If you happen across the theater and you enjoyed previous works of Violet Vision, then definitely give a chance to this most wonderful experience. Scarlet: Your Adventure stories promise much talent. Don’t ruin your reputation by trying to criticize works outside your expertise! - Clover Cover”

She rarely bragged about it, but that didn’t mean the pony of Platform 01 didn’t love to see her name in the paper every now and then, when she wrote an article. As such vitriolic works go, Clover didn’t have many of them to her name. She was regarded as a very kind pony, despite the occasionally very tragic and heart breaking love stories she weaved so carefully in her art. Because of this, when she spoke as harsh as in this particular article, it carried all the more weight.

She lowered the paper to check the time on one of the station’s clocks and noted that she still has some time... Perhaps she should hit up the riddles on page thirteen.

While flipping the pages she wondered to herself; she hoped Scarlet Pen doesn’t take this writing too much to heart. The young author, as brash as she may have acted at times, was talented. There was no question about that. Clover even endorsed one of her earlier works to be showcased in The Equestrian a few months back. Still, she needed to be put in her place at times. A large ego is the worst disease a writer can develop, as it makes her immune to the pharmaceutical values of criticism. “Then again... Wait. Seriously? ‘Creature with the head of a horse, antlers of an elk, horn of a uni- yadi, yadi, yada. Ruler of Ancient Equestria’?”

“This would have been an awfully simplistic question, even if the answer didn’t turn half of Equestria into a theme park just months ago.” Clover thought to herself with a disappointed smirk on her face and looked over to the other side of the riddles section. Questions like these sometimes made her wonder, just who do the publishers suppose takes their time to flip the riddle section anyway? Definitely not simpletons. “Ah! ‘I have but one face. Yet when you look at me, you shall always see nothing but what your heart seeks. Should ponies cease to truly look, I would be just a square on a hook. What am I?’ Now THAT is a riddle, thank you very much! A bit easy, ‘abstract painting’ but at least some effort went into it!”

For the next few minutes, the author delved into rest of the riddles, slowly working herself through them. Finally she was interrupted by the raspy voice of the station master, who now announced:

'11:35 from Manehatten, through Ponyville; arriving on Platform 01! For you safety please stay clear of the platform!'

With a quick movement of her hooves, she closed the paper and put it safely away into her reticule. She then looked off to watch as the train slowly pulls up in the station, with possibly the subject of her next article on board.

Earlier today - as she usually done on Fridays - Clover Cover visited the Castle grounds. These mornings were a casual meeting time of sorts for the Royal Council of Magical Practices. It is interesting perhaps to note that even though this group is infinitely above others such as the Royal Book Association of Canterlot, it’s members do not insist on everypony calling it by its full name and usually refer to it simply as RCMP themselves. In fact even on the rare occasion that they would publish something, they usually just use RCMP beyond the cover.

Clover liked this. She didn’t much enjoy the completely undeserved, stuck up attitude of their book association, but what was there to be done? Besides, let them have their pride if they so wish, she has better things to worry about, her stories for one.

Her stories indeed, while romantic in nature, often contained hints or even whole plot elements dedicated to magic. One of the reason for her renown was her insight into the workings of unicorn magic, which was unheard of from an Earth Pony.

The explanation to this was located - as suggested before - at the Castle grounds, mostly during the early hours of Friday.

She had a very unique standing with the RCMP. In a way she could have been considered a sort of mascot for the academic group, but she didn’t mind this position as lowly it may seem in its first sight. Thanks to the fact that her parents worked in the Castle, she was allowed to come and go there as she pleased from a very young age - even if under the ever watchful eyes of the royal guard.

Though the teachers weren’t always happy about it, she often listened in on the classes kept for the aspiring magicians - an activity she never truly stopped revisiting. One day she was discovered by a member of the RCMP who also taught magic there. Upon asking her a few questions, the unicorn was impressed by the young filly’s curiosity and allowed her to join his classes whenever she wishes, as long as she doesn’t distract anypony.

As the years passed she was later introduced by this unicorn to other members of the council. Very soon she gathered the attention of the members who were both impressed by the - then young - Earth Pony’s interest in magic and found a uniquely entertaining challenge of explaining their craft to such an outsider.

If not for this interest in magic, she probably never would have had the opportunity to spot a very young Twilight Sparkle failing miserably at gardening magic. She would never have written the book thatsoon became her break through (“Gardening for Unicorns, or Why It’s BETTER to Use Your Hooves Sometimes”). The same Twilight Sparkle at age thirteen would never have written her a single piece of fan mail. And they would never have developed a mutual respect for each other through their common interest in literature and magic.

This whole train of thoughts ringed a strangely sounding bell for the writer who was standing at Platform 01 at this moment. This bell in particular hung in an unlit corner of her mind, was small, gray but sounded like the voice of a satisfied chuckle rather than any kind of ringing produced by more healthier members of its ilk. The bell also had a small and simple inscription on it that read “Fate”.

Indeed: ‘Fate’. If those things don’t happen one thing is for sure: Twilight Sparkle wouldn’t have visited her two days ago in her office and as a direct consequence the unicorn wouldn’t have left Canterlot the time she did! However if it would have been so, she wouldn’t have made it to the right place by when the right time came along to save a certain stallion. In this scenario, said stallion would have ended up either dead or at the very least seriously maimed.

She was a novelist. She more or less lived off of carefully crafting the fate of fictional characters then telling it in a way that would keep readers guessing until the very last page of the very last chapter in the very last book of the saga. Somehow she still had a hard time believing in the concept of fate. Then again it was laid out before her perfectly!

If this stallion doesn’t make it, then obviously he can’t write a letter to Princess Celestia. In turn, Princess Celestia would hardly visit a peaceful get together of the RCMP next morning in the Castle grounds that she - Clover Cover - happens to be attending. And it is obvious that she couldn’t have shared a discovery with the group that would send them into a heated argument of what is and what isn’t completely impossible.

These things are however unimportant for the most part. There is exactly three details to the whole ordeal that Clover Cover considered important at the moment: One, this mysterious stallion had a story to him that baffled the greatest academic minds of Canterlot when they heard it just hours ago. Two, she managed to volunteer herself to the noble cause of welcoming this stallion to Canterlot. Three, there was a stallion stepping off the train, seemingly fitting the description given by the Princess down to the last detail of his attire. The whole, gray suit made the him look like the actors from the old theatre posters whom always wore that charming smile, so unique to the 40s and 50s. Even thought this stallion in particular did not insult the trademark by wearing a smile.

Taking a few steps towards the seemingly lost, teal coated stallion, Clover had to note in herself that today’s fashion could do with a little retro spirit. And more hats.

'Mr Oakleaf?' Clover called out to the uncertain unicorn. He searched for his caller for a moment in the leaving crowd, but then noticed and walked over to the waving mare.

'Good day!' Oak addressed the mare indifferently. 'Are you from...?'

'The Princess, yes.' nodded Clover putting on a smile somewhere halfway between friendly and formal. 'Good day to you as well! I’m sorry to say but the Princess asked to postpone your meeting with her. She said she will only be ready to welcome you tomorrow.'

'Oh... Well...' started the stallion. 'I’m not quite sure what I could- uh, should do. Did she say anything else?'

'Actually, she said that there is a guest room waiting, in the Castle where you are free to stay at anytime. To be honest however, I was hoping I may show you around Canterlot and ask you a few questions if you don’t mind.' Clover explained a raised her eyebrows a bit, as she usually done when she was in anticipation or excitement.

'Ah well that would sound... Good.' nodded Oakleaf thoughtfully, then added: 'Not to insult, but you wouldn’t happen to be a writer, looking for the plot of her next story in me?' He pointed his right hoof at the flank of Clover which shown a book with a bouquet of long, yellow flowers on it’s cover. 'I’m not as interesting as apparently Miss Twilight Sparkle made me look for the Princess.' Oakleaf said the last part a bit dryly.

'As a matter of fact, I am a writer and I’m also looking for your story, but only for an article.' Clover replied with a smile, dismissing the accusations from her mind. 'None the less, if you don’t mind me saying this: I still doubt that a story that can baffle the Royal Council of Magical Practices would be considered boring.'

The stallion finally smiled. Perhaps he just saw the ridiculousness of his claim of unimportance, or... Well what ever it was it didn’t last long. The stallion’s eyes wandered off of the mare’s blue eyes and after that, the smile slowly disappeared from his face, giving place to his previous indifference.

'As you wish.' he said simply. 'We can go whereever you please.'

'Thank you.' Clover turned around and headed for the nearest exit of the station, Oakleaf following besides her.

She had a thought, that perhaps if they visited her favourite Café, a hot drink would lift the spirits of the stallion. However she didn’t plan to be a silent guide until then, so quickly picked up a conversation:

'I hope I’m not intruding but I noticed you didn’t mention Twilight with much adoration. Did something happen?'

The stallion raised his eyebrows for a flash when she called out the name of Ponyville’s librarian, perhaps he noticed the way she called her by her first name.

'You know Miss Sparkle then?'

'We had similar interests, magic and literature mainly. Because of that we often crossed paths either in the Royal Library or in the company of esteemed magicians.' Clover explained. Oak raised his eyebrows in a surprised fashion when the mare mentioned her interest in magic, but didn’t wish to interrupt her. 'Sadly I didn’t get many chances to speak with her since she moved to Ponyville that is. Now say, is everything quite alright?' - she smiled and raised her eyebrows mimicking the stallion after last sentence.

'It’s just seems a bit strange for an Equestrian earth pony to show interest in magic. But I don’t think I would make a good judge, given your are one of the first I even met.'

Clover stopped in her track. Still smiling kindly, she pointed her hoof around and said:

'Just take a look around here! This is Canterlot, arguably the most magical city in all of Equestria! It’s hard to find anything here that wouldn’t be enchanted by some sort of magic to be more beautiful or useful in some way! Though many seem to disagree with me, I often ask how can somepony not fall in love with magic in a city like this? A city that is living and breathing proof of how much good it can do?'

'You sound very much like somepony I knew once.' The smile returned the stallion’s face for a moment then moved on again. Clover found it better no to ask him about it so just moved the conversation quickly:

'I dare say then that he or she is a clever pony! But you never did say what happened with Twilight and you.' She slowly continued down the street, followed by Oakleaf.

'I am afraid I have disturbed her. She slowly started to look more and more depressed and especially seemed so when we talked.' he explained.

'Hm...' Clover tried to remember any time she would have found the young magician depressed but couldn’t think of such times. She was usually pulled back and stayed to herself, the only pony who she would talk to with complete openness was Princess Celestia herself... Unless!

She recalled a mail exchange between the two of them, Twilight and herself, a few months after Twilight sent Clover her first fan mail. They’ve been mailing for a while exchanging little more than thoughts about Clover’s work and a few other books she recommended to her young fan.

The letter was strange because for the first - and honestly only - time, Twilight wrote to her to find composure. Clover could hardly remember the details, but the young filly told her that she messed up with a spell and something happened in the royal dining room, covering it all in dirt including the Princess. Young Twilight was completely shaken by the accident and though the Princess told her that everything is fine, she got it into her head that she messed up because she isn’t truly as good with magic as she should be.

While the most memorable part of this was that she was the second pony in all of Equestria who the filly would go to in times of doubt - only out done by the Princess herself. The letter and the ones exchanged soon after also served to show how at that age, the poor filly already developed a fear of not being good enough. She imagined, the appearance of a mage like this stallion could... No, Twilight shouldn’t be that unsure of herself, she just saw her two days ago! She looked fine.

Just now did she realize that her hooves carried them to the entrance of her favourite café. Frankly she was surprised at herself. They were two streets up just a moment ago, she usually didn’t drift of like this. Perhaps it was just that unique feeling she had when first reading that letter crawling back to her. That sense of dependence and duty. That moth-...

'Excuse me, I really drifted off there.' she apologized, as she realized that she’s with company.

'Not at all.' nodded Oakleaf with a probably fake smile. 'After you, Miss!'

Clover Cover stepped through the familiar door, a bit offmindedly reconstructing what she should do inside. There is still a great story to be told by this stallion and darn it if she won’t do her best to get it out!

The Café du Soleil was without a doubt the most esteemed café in all of Canterlot. The only place that a customer of the café could possibly considered ‘a better place to be’ is the palace’s terrace side tea room where the princesses entertained their guests on occasion but that would be hardly a fair competitor. Some cafés across Equestria aimed to challenge it’s throne as the Queen of Cafés, such as the Étalon Café of Manehatten. However, its position at the very end of the Caelum Avenue (the street that runs from the city gates to the very heart of Canterlot), the decorations that have been gathered and maintained through its seven hundred year history and the quartets that play refined music every evening justly place it above any competitors.

Indeed for many decades now, the very definition of an important pony of Canterlot could have been ‘somepony who often spends their time in this establishment’. Perhaps not knowing, or simply not caring, Oakleaf didn’t show any signs of awe when stepping into the café. He simply lifted his hat off using his magic and followed Clover Cover to a unicorn waiter who quickly shown them to an empty table.

'Coffee?' asked Clover once she and Oakleaf were seated and the waiter took out a notepad. The unicorn seemed a bit lost in thoughts but the question caused him to raise his head with a somewhat surprised look.

'Oh, yes. Definitely!' he nodded with a half smile.

'Two coffees then, one with no sugar, please.' smiled Clover at the waiter who quickly walked off. She turned to Oakleaf and continued: 'So you’ve spent but two days in Equestria but already developed a taste for the black ambrosia? Time well spent!' she smiled.

'Actually I didn’t have any here in Equestria yet. But to put it simple, Equestria is not the only land where there is coffee.' explained Oakleaf. 'Now comes the part of course where you inquire about where else there is coffee, trying to work out where I’ve been before then ask further questions about it to form a picture that you can put into your article. No?' Oakeleaf said this without any harsh emotions, he just spoke as if reading up the first half of a to-do list.

'Uh...' Clover paused for a moment in surprise. 'Does this mean you wish to tell me about it?'

'There are things I would not like to talk about...' he paused. 'Bad memories. But I have hardly anything else for me to do until I get to my hearing, so I suppose helping you out is the least I could do in exchange for a coffee.'

This was something she didn’t anticipate. Clover imagined she could break the ice in the café with a little work, then she could invite the stallion to her office where she can take notes and properly interview the mage but he just went and threw her whole schedule off balance.

That wouldn’t have been that bad if not for the fact that she - given that she isn’t a unicorn - was forced to use her hooves or mouth to write with a pen, which she didn’t quite excel at. She would usually just use a typewriter to write her books and articles. Darn it! Alright! This is a chance and she be damned if she let’s it pass! She’ll manage with the writing somehow.

'Hold on just a moment please!' she said.

Clover reached into her reticule and grabbed her copy of The Equestrian, quickly turning to the last page which was by tradition an empty page, easy to separate from rest of the paper. It contained nothing but orderly postal information to the offices in which the paper is edited and a few official seals bearing the insignias of The Equestrian and the associated corporations. The newspaper always wore it as a badge of honour, keeping it there so if anypony has a complaint about their work, they can just write it there and send it free of charge through the post. Now Clover Cover could use it as a note pad. A moment later she reached back and took out a fancy metal pen (With inner ink storage!) that she got as a gift, bearing the seal of the RCMP. She would usually just keep it around, not knowing where else to put it, but this seemed to be lucky for her today!

A bit sluggishly and lacking all signs of grace, she started to scribble down the words “Oakleaf ‘The Vagrant’ Interview”, balancing the metal rod in her mouth. By the time she finished with Vagrant, she decided she’ll just use “IV” for InterView.

'Not to pry but may I uh... Help?' asked Oakleaf.

'What?' Clover looked up a bit anxiously and the pen fell from her mouth to the table. 'Oh no, no, no! What would it be like? Make you write notes on yourself.' she wasn’t sure if she should smile or just take it as a "forget it" and put away the paper.

'Eheh, that’s not exactly what I had in mind.' the unicorn smiled honestly. 'Could I take the pen for a second?' Clover just nodded to which Oakleaf lifted the pen from table, it glowing with a dim teal light. 'I’ll also need your hoof, just for a moment.'

Clover was a bit unsure about all of this but felt very curious abut what the unicorn is aiming to do here so reached out her left hoof towards the stallion. He simply touched his own hoof against it and said:

'Look at the pen and imagine it write a word on the paper.'

The mare raised her eyebrows but did as Oakleaf asked. Much to her astonishment the dim teal light around the pen disappeared and it flew to the paper. A few moments later the word “Trickery” was written upon the page with pristine, elegant letters. The unicorn pulled back his hoof, pen gently levitating over the paper still.

'That should help.' he said simply with a smile.

'Wait, what do you mean? It will write what ever I want?' asked Clover, while her mind already imagined the pen correcting out the first line. When she looked at the paper again the words “Oakleaf ‘The Vagrant’ IV” and “Trickery” were crossed out and a bit lower it was adorned with beautiful text reading: “Oakleaf ‘The Vagrant’ Interview” - What sort of spell did you cast?

'That "spell" is one of the reasons they’ll want to see me I think.' sighed Oakleaf and the smile disappeared from his face again. 'Technically I didn’t cast a single spell. You did.'

'What?' Clover blinked. Did the unicorn just say that SHE casted a spell? 'I casted a spell?' He can’t be serious. Only unicorns and alicorns can cast spells. He must be pulling her leg.

'Think about it. I didn’t know you would want to write...' he paused and twisted his head a little to read the paper. ' “Trickery” on the paper. You did. The pen does what you and you alone want it to do.'

'But I can’t cast spells! I don’t have a horn!'

'That’s a problem, yes. But it doesn’t mean you don’t have magic in you. Everypony has. I just helped in organizing it into a spell and loaned my own horn for a moment.'

The pen started to move madly on the paper while Clover still looked straight at the unicorn. She didn’t want to believe him but neither did she want to believe that the pen would work!

'So you’re trying to tell me that you can help non-unicorns cast spells?!' Clover asked finally. 'Anypony?'

'Um...' Oakleaf looked around a bit uncomfortably, a few other customers of the café looked curiously at their table, listening in on the conversation. As soon as the unicorn looked at them, they quickly turned back to their own table. 'I can do that, yes. It’s among the things explained in my book.'

'That’s just... Amazing!'

'I doubt it will be that amazing when the committee gets through with it.' sighed the unicorn.

'What do you mean?' Clover raised her eyebrows. Such an amazing achievement would be applauded by any magician.

'It’s simple really: It’s too much! If...' he started to explain but was interrupted by the return of the waiter. 'Thank you.' Oak nodded at him then took a sip of the coffee. 'I must admit this is better than my home brew.'

Clover just looked at her cup. The thought that maybe she could just lift it with a thought and drink it crossed her mind. She would never have such thoughts before, perhaps as a filly but never since. She as all other Earth Ponies and Pegasi learned to adapt to their magical handicap and were perfectly happy this way. But if they could over come it now, even with the help of unicorns... Why would that be bad?

'Anyway as I was saying:' continued Oakleaf. 'It would be too much. Among other things it would make unicorns less ‘special’. I doubt that would be looked upon with much joy on their behalf. Not sure if it’s worth debating this though. It’s a touchy issue and I don’t have much more insight into it than a few dozen history books I’ve read of Equestria and what the Princess explained to me in her letter. There’ll be far enough talk about it in my hearing anyhow.' he took another sip of the coffee.

'Ye-yes...' Clover concentrated back on the unicorn. All of this started to increasingly feel like a dream. Never before did she feel this strongly that she got into something much larger than herself. 'Um, if you don’t mind, can I ask you a few questions about where you came from?' The pen quickly drew a perfect horizontal line on the paper and started levitating under it.

'Ask away...' nodded the teal stallion and lifted the cup to his mouth aiming to finish the rest of the coffee.

'Well, I’m not quite sure where to start actually. I haven’t heard such a wild tale since the so called “Great and Powerful Trixie” claimed she defeated an Ursa Major.' she admitted. The unicorn smiled a bit when heard the Ursa Major’s supposed defeat but just kept drinking. It took a few moments before his eyes suddenly went wide and he had to cover his mouth with his hoof, not to spit out the coffee.

'E-excuse me.' coughed Oakleaf, gathering the attention of neighboring tables once more. 'I just suddenly had to... hiccup. Sorry.' he quickly lifted a napkin with magic and started to soak up the little coffee that landed on the table, then wiped off his own muzzle and hoof. 'Who was this Ursa slayer you mentioned?'

'Just a loudmouthed unicorn who made a stage act of making a fool out of volunteers, trying to prove she is the greatest unicorn, who ever lived.' Clover explained with a shrug.

'And she called herself “The Great and Powerful Trixie”...' Oakleaf looked away thoughtfully and a smile slowly, but surely appeared on his mouth. 'Well that is quite the title. I might look into her when I’ll get a chance.'

'Don’t expect much, she was proven to fail in vanquishing even an Ursa Minor.' Clover shook her head. 'In fact coincidentally it was the same Twilight Sparkle we both met, who saved the situation back then. Was all around in the papers. I’m not even sure Trixie’s still in the business.' she finished.

'That’s too bad.' replied the unicorn and the smile weakened a bit but not disappearing. 'I do believe I promised you a few questions though so shoot!'

Clover collected her thoughts and started asking her questions, the pen zealously taking notes all the while. She listened as the unicorn explained his first memories, of how lost he really felt and the clumsy way he attempted to survive on his own in the first few days. He explained how about three weeks after his arrival - which time he spent mostly in the mysterious house he awoken in, reading the many books - he was found by the Kiang while he was bathing in a nearby lake.

Oakleaf seemed to enjoy reciting his own failings from his time, noting that it took another week for the Kiang medicine mare to kindly cure him of a nasty poisoning that he gathered from eating all of the wrong fruits and berries in the forest. He also told about the troubles of communication as he awoken with his sense of pony language and ability to read intact, but that didn’t save him from the troubles of speaking with a species stranger to him.

Clover wrote down a traditional welcoming blessing spoken by the Kiang, that Oak told her and then even moved on to a few praying tunes they would speak at an altar that was placed at the foot of their tallest mountain. When asking as to why there was an altar placed there, Oak explained about the dragon Frost who lived in a cave on the top of that mountain and his position as their only defence against the windigos.

Oakleaf finally started to recite friends he made among the Kiang, their strange but admirable traditions and other elements of their every day life. At this point, Clover asked as to why he left there, if he had friends and lived with them for so long. The unicorn paused at this question and finally just said that he rather not speak of that and that it involved a terrible accident.

'Did... Did you create a spell that backfired somehow?' asked Clover carefully.

'No. That would make things a lot more simpler.' Oakleaf shook his head. 'The accident wasn’t anypony’s fault really and beyond my life it changed little among the Kiang. It’s not too important beyond that it made me leave them. It was also the reason why wanting to come home to Equestria sparked up in me again.'

Not wanting to elaborate further, the teal unicorn went on to mention a few other societies he met later as he started his great journey, searching for Equestria. He made brief description of the way a noble people known as “Wapiti” lived, describing them as deeply spiritual and making their home inside or around great trees. He went on to list a few other more tribal groups such as the Onager and Okapi.

Eventually he admitted to meeting a single group of ponies, completely separate of Equestria and the surrounding nations.

'They called themselves the Takhi. They weren’t exactly like us, but were very close. They were exclusively Earth Ponies and had a very long, well documented history despite being very few in numbers compared to Equestria. They claimed to never age, which though could sound unbelievable was supported the extremely few foals among them. They claimed they were blessed with this immortality by a formless spirit called Nikol who was the guardian of a great valley. The “Prze Walsk”.'

'And they were truly immortal?' asked Clover with disbelief, her paper nearly full with notes.

'Ehm...' Oakleaf stopped to think for a moment. 'I don’t know for sure. I suppose it may be possible but I didn’t spend so much time with them. What was interesting and inspiring at the same time was how... I did say they were all Earth Ponies? So despite that their life wasn’t free of magic! They somehow managed to tap into their inner magic and use it for simple things like curing diseases that would be impossible with simple herbs and remedies.'

'That can’t be.' Clover raised her eyebrows. A unicorn tapping into another pony’s magic to help her use it was one thing. She could sort of see how that works. But an Earth Ponies using magic on their own? That is just impossible.

'Well it was so. I studied it for the short time I’ve been with them. It was what gave me the idea for the process that allowed me to help you enchant that pen just now.'

Clover was always proud of her insight into magic, despite her born-with handicap. She knew the works of many theologians and it was without a doubt proven on many occasion that without the alicorn - the material that unicorn horns are made off - the willful control of magical energies is impossible.

'I think I know what you’re thinking.' noted Oakleaf. 'I’ve read studies form Equestria. I too know how much proof there is against exactly this. Problem is that all proof works with unicorn magic and its control by our will. They didn’t do that at all. In fact you are not willing that pen to levitate in the air right now, are you? You don’t need to concentrate for it to be there. It just is because why wouldn’t it be?'

Clover looked on the pen to which it fell to the table with a slight pinging sound.

'I suspected as much.' Oakleaf chuckles a bit under his breath, to which Clover started to feel a bit angry. Why would he laugh at her? 'Don’t take me wrong, Miss Cover. But that was to be expected.'

'So is the spell broken now?' she asked.

'Hardly. It’s just... This is hard to explain.' started the stallion. 'Take your head for example. Why is it in such an upright position?'

'Because I hold it so?'

'Oh no!' the stallion was smiling fully again. He obviously enjoyed talking about this. 'You don’t concentrate every moment for it to be that way! Same thing when you blink or walk, you don’t willfully make every step. You simply go. It is all something that comes from the inside! But maybe this is not the best example... I’m sure you at least once felt in your life that you need to wake up but instead of getting up you just imagined the process of getting up without actually moving.'

'You mean the pen is in Sleep Paralysis?' the mare bent back and crossed her hooves.

'Pseudo Paralysis! The only reason the pen doesn’t move is because you imagine there should be a step before it does. There isn’t however. You just make it write the way you make your hooves move! You don’t control every muscle separately, you just ‘move’! Just try and write something on the paper again!

Clover gave the unicorn another stare with raised eyebrows. By now she imagined that his maybe some sort of elaborate trick the unicorn is pulling on her. Who knows? He could have just taken wild guesses at what she would write on the paper, since he was the one the notes were taken of anyway. As for ‘Trickery’ well that was truly on her mind but not something that couldn’t have been guessed.

She looked at the pen which rested on the table and concentrated on lifting it. She imagined it as a fifth hoof and tried to move it but it didn’t do anything still. After about half a minute of trying she looked back at the unicorn in disappointment. Oakleaf just smiled and with a quick movement of his eyes made her look back on the pen. It lifted as soon as she took her eyes off it and was busy writing “This is all a bunch of-”. She stopped the pen before the inappropriate word.

Hold on... she stopped it! She definitely felt it as she stopped it, just at that moment! That couldn’t have been lucky timing, she just knew she was the one who stopped the pen from writing the last word. That means the pen is really controlled by her, but then can it mean that the unicorn is telling the truth? That there really is a group of Earth Ponies out there who use magic on their own? Could they also grant themselves immortality with that magic? This is just too much to take in.

'As you can see, it’s still working! You just had to stumble across the right key to make it work. Same thing applies for the Takhi, they train with mystical rituals to be able to tap into their inner magic and help themselves.' he paused. 'Well they don’t really do anything fancy though. Definitely nothing like using a pen like this. Mostly just... Well curing and fortifying their endurance. Still pretty impressive.'

'Yes... Impressive.' Clover looked at the pen again which this time didn’t fall to the desk just calmly swam around in the air above the paper.

She just noticed that the Café is awfully quiet compared to the usual noise. Not that it would be too loud usually but clearly everypony was keeping their voice down. Looking around, she saw that nopony was exactly ‘watching’ them but she managed to catch a few brief glimpses from the quietly conversing crowd. The mare never felt this awkward in the Soleil before, still it was understandable.

Trying to distract herself from the crowd, she continued:

'You seem awfully tranquil, for somepony who is personally summoned by the Council, by the Princess’s request no less! Usually they only grant hearings upon request but your case is very different.'

'I suppose.' nodded Oak sitting back in the chair, his face taking on a more serious look. 'However as little as I want to sound boastful, this turn of events is only natural.' He looked off for a bit, noting the few ponies that were evesdroping on them, then turned back and continued: 'I was hoping I can avoid any parading around like this, I really was. Still, looking back it was a silly hope. Somepony of my background would have to be inspected, not to mention my spells. Still I was quite surprised how it went as high as the Princess herself.'

'You’re saying you were hoping your spells won’t come under their eyes?' Clover didn’t like the sound of that statement. It was highly illegal to use spells that weren’t checked and allowed by officials, trying to avoid these authorities was perhaps equally bad.

'I know how it sounds. Believe me, I know. But I wasn’t afraid for the spells failing some sort of safety test or anything. I know my way around magic. I know they are harmless... In the direct approach.'

' “The direct approach”? What...' started the mare but was interrupted by another stallion’s cheerful greetings.

'Ah there you are! I was looking all over for you!' said a unicorn with dark, pale blue mane and an even paler thistle coloured coat, wearing a not exactly fancy but elegant suit. His light, cyan eyes shined with joy as he approached their table. 'Should have known you would be here.'

'Oh, I thought you’d be with your father Cres.' smiled at him Clover a bit surprised. The new stallion walked up to them and gave a small kiss on side of her muzzle.

'Saw Scarlet earlier, she didn’t look too happy.' he said with a slightly disapproving smile. Then turned to the other unicorn. 'Forgive my manners for not greeting you first. My name is Cresent Glare.' Cres reached his right hoof out to Oakleaf who smiled politely and shook it with his own.

'Oakleaf.' the teal stallion said simply.

'Pleasure to meet you.' the other nodded.

'He’s my fiance.' noted Clover, the appearance of the stallion quickly soothed her initial shock at the mage’s abilities and actions.

'I’ve carried that title with pride for two years now.' Cres added towards Oakleaf, stretching his neck and slightly tilting his head upwards, closing his eyes for a prideful expression.

'You’re the one who insists on holding our wedding at Astrum’s Aurora.' she pinched at him verbally but smiling in a Clover of course referred to the legendary phenomenon, that (as the story goes) helped earn Star Swirl the Bearded his mark. A magnificent supernal event that happens roughly around every hundred years or so when an exceptional star - Astrum Aether - ascends in the night sky and supposedly "breathes life and magic" into everything and everypony who is pure in an amazing explosion of colourful lights that spread across the horizon. After this, the star dims to a point where only an astronomer could recognize it and slowly makes its way across the sky and disappears completely until the next Astrum’s Aurora.

'But that is three more years from now, no?' asked Oakleaf.

'It’s worth it.' Cres said simply, smiling at his fiancee. 'And it was her idea originally! Don’t deny it! She loves being called ‘Miss’ too I think.' he chuckled a bit. 'I’m sorry for interrupting your conversation though. I was just hoping I could find you after dad sent me off. Some council business came up apparently.'

'Well uh...' Clover started, unsure if she should tell him who Oakleaf really is or not. She turned questioningly towards the teal unicorn, who after a few seconds of interpretation just sat forward and gestured to toward Cres with an approving nod. 'Well I think you managed to run into that council business.' smiled Clover at Crescent Glare, then turned back to Oakleaf.

'Wait, you mean?' Cres looked at the stallion then back at the mare. 'Shouldn’t you be with the Council? I don’t...'

'The Council, no doubt are busy enough examining a book a of mine right now.' said Oakleaf. 'I wrote a set of spells that apparently they found very interesting.'

'I already questioned him today.' added Clover. 'I can explain most of it later if you like. But...' she stopped and looked at the pen which still hung in the air, ready for her every wish. 'Guess what I did today?' she asked on a sudden whim. She just couldn’t hold back this from him.

'Uh?' Cres looked at her uncertainly. It seemed he logically attributed the floating pen to the fellow unicorn and didn’t even look at it. Clover smiled mischievously and flew metal pen with its non-writing end into a certain point on Cres’s neck that she knew to be very ticklish for him.

Crescent Glare twitched then stepped back, turning angrily at Oakleaf: 'What do you think you’re doing?!' Clover started giggling to which Cres became even more confused. Obviously he by now made the contact with the point on his neck and the strike but didn’t know what to make of it. Did his fiance tell this stranger about his weak-point? What sense would that make?

'What she’s trying to say here, is that she’s flying that pen.' noted Oakleaf, who though didn’t visualize it too much seemed to enjoy watching this little scene, despite how inappropriate it was both in the situation and in the location wise.

Cres didn’t want to believe it at first but then Clover quickly explained to him the pen. The unicorn tried to argue but his mouth just stopped while opening it and hung there. Clover knew Cres aspired to once be a part of the Council that his father is seated in right now and his expression perfectly matched most of the Council’s, when the Princess shown them the tome this teal stallion wrote.

Meanwhile Oakleaf waited patiently, silently watching the two of them. He exchanged a few nods with the dumbstruck stallion who switched between him and Clover, but didn’t say anything. As Cres slowly started give in, Oak’s attention wandered of to the neighbouring tables again, but soon turned back to his company with an uncomfortable sigh.

Clover picked up on this and quickly turned to him:

'I hardly shown you any of Canterlot so far. Would you like to move on?' While saying this, she worked her purse out of the reticule.

'Yes that would be preferable.' nodded Oak taking another look around.

Cres took the liberty to wave for a waiter before asking: 'Mind if I tag along? This is just amazing and my plans for the rest of the day just went out the window anyway.'

Oakleaf didn’t protest against the suggestion and soon after the waiter took Clover’s bits the three were walking down Caelum Avenue the teal stallion trying to explain the ‘how’ of the spell that allowed Clover to control the pen which was not safely put away in her reticule.

'I think the problem you have with grasping it is its simplicity itself.' said Oakleaf, still smiling after about the fifth claim of impossibility on Cres’s part who listed magical theologians’ counter proofs to the pen’s existence. Clover had just a little trouble keeping on with the unicorns but she didn’t share his fiance’s feelings that suggested that he’s taking this pen as something that by all laws of reality: should not exists right now. 'This isn’t a “spell” in the sense that you don’t really do anything for most part of it. This places it out of the jurisdiction of any of the theories you listed. In fact it doesn’t even use unicorn magic which is the very basis of all official magical practices. You just open your horn to the will of somepony else. If you really want to know more about it, I suppose I can explain to you sometime but I’m really getting tired of speaking of spells.' Oakleaf paused, giving a moment for the fellow unicorn to oppose the change of subject that he’s about to bring, but Cresent Glare just looked ahead, thinking. 'Anyway, I do think we both been neglecting Miss Cover. Especially since we didn’t quite finish our talk earlier.'

'Hm?' Half of Clover’s mind drifted off earlier and she was already considering the possible underlying messages if applying the ability to share magic in a romantic story. If the unicorn’s spell would become common knowledge, she could easily write a best seller off the concept.

'I just remembered that we left off with the interview on a low note.' explained Oak. 'You seemed to believe I was planning to do something nefarious with my knowledge. I don’t want it to end on such a low note.'

'Oh yes.' Clover remembered. 'You said you hoped that you don’t gather this much attention.' She still found this questionable, but the way how the stallion brought it up himself and in good spirits non the less; soothed her suspicion.

'Yes and what I wanted to say is that the reason behind this is that not everypony is like Mr Glare here. - he nodded at the stallion with a smile, but took on a more serious expression after: 'While you two seem to enjoy the premise of this spell an I imagine would be open to the rest, I doubt everypony will be like that.'

'I don’t understand what you mean.' interrupted Cres. 'This single spell you talked about is astounding! There is no way they wouldn’t want to see and learn more of these techniques.'

' “They”.' repeated Oakleaf turned his head forward. He paused for a moment then added: 'Follow me.'

The two others were surprised by this but before they could say anything, Oakleaf already walked off to a corner. They followed him to the street that opened there and after a few steps off the main avenue and visibly out of earshot, Oakleaf continued:

'Surely the Council will applaud this.' he said keeping his voice down. 'They live to see new possibilities they can explore. But I tell you right now, the Council won’t be the only side representing itself during my hearing. I could promise that there will be atleast one Pegasus representative there.'

Clover and Cres exchanged a confused look, they werent’s sure what to make of this at all.

'Did the Princess write to you about this?' asked Clover, without keeping her voice down.

'Why would a Pegasus even be interested in this?' added Cres.

'It should be obvious but fine:' he continued, still not raising his voice. 'Right now, everything is just the same as it was in the times before Equestria. The earth ponies still do most of the agricultural work, the pegasi still control the weather and the unicorns still provide the other two with magical services.' Oakleaf started. 'It’s only natural. Fact is, their own magical abilities lead the three races to their respective vocations. There are many deviations from this these days and in fact everypony is accepted for who they are. No arguments there either. But that doesn’t change the fact that cities like Cloudsdale live off of something unique to their race.'

Oakleaf paused for a moment to see if the two were following him.

'Now the problem is that I lacked the luxury of living in a land where everything is running smoothly. Fact is, most of the world runs itself. Weather, plant growth, everything. Because of this I was forced to experiment with ways to replicate skills like the pegasus’s weather control or even the rarely spoken-of connection that earth ponies share with nature. Naturally I failed at replicating them fully, but I came way too close for somepony to not get the wrong impression. That maybe I could have succeeded.'

'How do you mean "you could not have succeeded"?' asked Clover.

'I’m meaning that it is impossible for a unicorn to replicate pegasus magic. I can do something similar but it is impossible to replicate it in its full glory. Same goes with earth ponies. The essence of these magics is different. Problem is that if somepony looks at these spells they may think it is possible because before I managed to create the spell that allowed you to tap into my control of magic, no pony had any idea how exactly non-unicorn magic works. They have no means of proving that it is impossible, therefore they will think it is possible. Which...' Oakleaf shook his head. 'Why is this so hard to explain? The main problem here is this: If they think I can replicate their abilities, they’ll think I can replace them. If I could, it would mean the end of cities like Cloudsdale.'

'So you didn’t want to let them see your work because you were afraid they would wish to destroy it, so it won’t endanger the economy?' asked Cres.

'That too but it’s not the issue here. I never wanted my spells to have the opportunity to reach mainstream use. Even if they aren’t too powerful in this sense, used in mass they can still be devastating.' Oakleaf paused. 'I... I just wanted to give my help where it was needed and now I may end up starting an argument that will go on for years.'

Silence came. Not the awkward kind of silence but a more thoughtful silence. Clover had a hard time understanding the argument at first, but the more she thought about it the more sense it made. It’s only natural to fear being replaced and the possibility to also lose one’s job? Anypony would try to oppose such a thing and they should!

Normally Clover did not care much for politics, especially since it was mostly for ponies that insisted that despite the just and considerate rule of the princesses, there should be more power in the hooves of the common pony, simply because they don’t like the idea that there is somepony with more power over them. Even thought that those ponies put nothing before their happiness. Now however she had to think. Maybe there is a balance here, a balance that can easily be thrown out of order.

A cold shiver run over her back suddenly, something that didn’t happen to her for nearly twenty years, since she sent her third novel to a publisher, fearing that they might find it terrible.

'There.' sighed Oakleaf. 'This is why I didn’t want everything to go in this direction. This is also why I wasn’t all that happy about Miss Sparkle sending my tome here. I wanted you to know so you can understand why I’m not all that excited about all of this and you won’t think I was just planing something sinister, as you seemed to do earlier.' he explained then took one last pause and forced a reassuring smile on his muzzle. 'Still, the same travels blessed me with what I hope to be a decent diplomatic sense so there is no reason to take these fears too much to heart.'

Here, Oakleaf straightened up and loosened his voice, returning to his normal speaking voice. A slight gleam of teal light around his clothes quickly corrected dents in his suit.

'Now, if you don’t mind,' he continued. 'I’d like to view the sights of the finest city of my homeland. The famous Soleil Café just earlier served only to increase my int...' suddenly both his facial an vocal expression changed. The forced, supportive smile gave place to an honest, open happiness that seemed to come from nowhere. He even seemed to hold back a laugh as he continued: 'The Canterlot Theatre! Seat of the arts and magical illusions! I need to see that! Did that magician you mentioned, “The Great and Powerful Trixie” as you called, make a performance there?'

'Oh... I’m not sure.' replied Clover exchanging another view with her fiance.

She had no idea what changed the wizard’s mood all of a sudden. The phantom he painted just a minute ago, about his spells possibly destabilizing Equestria seemed distant yet surprisingly vivid. it was as if he pulled a blanket off a shining light that stood in the corner of her mind for years now. And then in the face of such danger the thought of the Theatre suddenly changed his mood this easily?

There was a lot more to this, she felt it. She wrote books about these subtle mood changes for heaven’s sake!... Yet, maybe because she selfishly wanted to move on to merrier thoughts, or because of the honest and calming joy on the teal stallion’s face or just the fact that she would have loved to spend the day with Cres by her side for a change; she decided to not push the topic.

After exchanging a few words with Cres, asking him to join them on a tour of the city and convincing him to leave boggling over the situation to another day; Clover took the lead once more, leading the two stallions back on Caelum Avenue and the off towards the Great Canterlot Theatre.

They’ve soon settled on a new discussion, brought on by Oakleaf about the history of Canterlot. They slowly toured through the city, visiting every major sight there is to see. Some time later, Cres attempted to return to the topic of magic, but Clover quickly quieted him down about it.

The two of them were frankly surprised about the amount of historical data Oakleaf could list out about various places, often outweighing their own knowledge! What absolutely astounded Clover was when Oakleaf managed to name all of the founders of the Canterlot Royal Library and name three of the four major disasters that occurred to it due to miss use of magic through the ages. The only one he didn’t know of happend only a hundred years ago and he defended that none of the books he had access too had mention of it.

In a strange way it made sense. While the Clover and Cres lived in Canterlot all their lives, they didn’t find it a very special place. They didn’t learn more than what was common knowledge while this stallion seemed to put a lot of effort into reconnecting with his home by reading and learning what ever there was to know about it.

By the end of the day, it was had to decide who learned more from who during the tour but Oakleaf thanked them dearly for their company. Before he bid farewell to them he stopped for a while to think and said this:

'I have a feeling that neither of you would mind the opportunity to take part in my hearing tomorrow.' Naturally Cres verified this claim instantly. Clover just listened. 'I was thinking that well, for all they know I’m but a poor wanderer from who knows where, which come to think of it is entirely correct! So why would they deny me the comfort of bringing along familiar faces to such a frighteningly prestigious event? I might be able to get you in if you wish. It’s the least I can do after the hospitality you’ve shown!'

Clover was unsure if she really wanted to take part in all of this, but she knew Cres couldn’t pass down a opportunity like this. Despite their close standing with the council this was still perhaps a once in a life time occasion made all the more interesting by the circumstances. Naturally the only thing to do was accept the unsure invitation.

Oakleaf just smiled and bowed to them as a good bye.

'Do you have a bad feeling about all of this?' asked Clover from Cres when they were slowly walking away from the Castle.

'A bad feeling? What with all the rubbish about pegasi coming to interfere with everything?' asked Cres back, coming a bit closer to her and nuzzling her ear. 'Don’t worry about it. Even if he’s right, IF this is that important; the Princess will surely make an appearance. And she won’t allow any rivalry to break out. She didn’t run Equestria by luck and no matter what he thinks, I doubt it would be that easy to upset somepony.'

'Well he really doesn’t know anything about us beyond what was written.' nodded Clover.

'Exactly. The way I feel right now, is that tomorrow’s going to be an interesting day and I’m looking forward to it. In fact, I was thinking perhaps only a small dinner home and a mug of tea, before calling it a night.'

'That sounds nice, what flavour tea did you have in mind?' Clover raised her head and looked into the stallion’s cyan eyes, with a meaningful smile.

'Oh you know me, I just love morning glory. But I’ve got a secret passion for sweet clover.' Cres replied, mirroring her expression.

'You speak my language.' she said, resting her head against the stallion’s neck.

'I love you too Sweets.' Cres said simply giving a small peck on the mare’s head. Then a few yards later added: 'But you do realize that now you have that fancy pen you’ll have to write half of the seasonal greeting cards right?'

Clover kicked him gently on the shoulder to which he just laughed as they continued their way back home.

Book Club, Part 2

“Expectations are among the few things that can still baffle me. They are honest lies we tell ourselves and even more, they are often so convincing that when reality falls short on them, we rather blame reality than ourselves, for fooling us.” reads a passage from Volume 49 of “Equestria”, the historical, philosophical, sociological and scientific “says-it-all” account book that was written by the legendary author Deep-Word, who aimed - and arguably succeeded - to document everything that was known about the world in his time.

Despite the hundreds of years of advancement since the final volume was published, despite the occasional scientific shortcomings and despite the lack of certain historical facts that were only later discovered; this is still considered one of the greatest pools of knowledge. As such, it was also among the ever growing list of books that Twilight distinguished with the privileged of having an eminent place in both her personal collection and her mind.

The earlier quote in particular was among her most treasured quotes, one she often repeated in herself. After all: Only fools should be blind to their own shortcomings. She should know that when something goes wrong, it is her who should be inspected first. Such as in the current situation.

Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie and herself spent most of the past three hours in her quarters. She felt honoured to have friends who would show her this much support in her hour of depression, friends who would offer their own time to make her feel better and turn a dream of hers into a reality... But her feelings on the past hours were mixed. While she enjoyed her friends’ company and was pleasantly surprised by their interest in books, there were a few things that didn’t feel quite right.

As she half expected, the books the other three read didn’t all fit into her definition of a good book. Pinkie mostly read adventure stories that featured stereotypical heroes who end up in ridiculous situations and escape only due to a constant flow of luck, while of course cracking bad jokes acting as if they already knew that - being the heroes of a comical book - they are mostly out of harm’s way.

Applejack was slightly better, the books she could recall were actually very cleverly written, full of wise thoughts and hidden messages that one could enjoy once delving into them fully. The problem with her was that she didn’t recall these books from direct experience. Instead she came to know them from Big Macintosh, who - if Applejack didn’t exaggerate too much - was surprisingly well-read. Twilight found it a bit difficult to imagine that the always quiet and distance keeping work horse would be this much into literature. Imagining him being more talkative with his sister seemed a little less hard in comparison.

Fluttershy didn’t change much from what she imagined earlier. She did have a lot of experience with good books, but - as always - didn’t wish to talk too much. Twilight would have liked to imagine that Fluttershy sees her silent criticism of the other two’s preferences and that the pegasus simply didn’t want to upstage their friends. What was surprising to the unicorn though, was how Fluttershy explained the source of her knowledge. Apparently the reason she began reading fine literature was to entertain her pets.

Now, if imagining her pets carefully listening to a book penned by Ink Weave seems difficult, then it is very understandable why Twilight took a curious look at Owloysius when Fluttershy mentioned cooperatively solving a puzzle book from Swift Quill (“The Chess Mysteries of Crystal Mane”) with one of her owls.

The owl - who seemed to correctly guess this glance as a sign of disbelief, towards the concept of an owl solving complicated puzzles - sent an angry ‘whoo’ to the librarian, on behalf of all his kind.

In the end of course it didn’t matter whether Twilight believed that Fluttershy’s pets have a deep admiration of literature or not. Though she had to admit that it would open interesting options for the book club. What mattered was that she has an understanding of the art and finds joy in it. Ergo: At least one of them understood the long speech she gave earlier, in which she recounted her experiences from the meeting in Canterlot and established what kind of structure she had in mind for the meetings.

“But come on!” Pinkie argued earlier. “If we read the whole book back home, then only talk about it’s morals then it will be so boring!”

“Well I’m sorry!” Twilight replied, hurt by Pinkie’s words. “But this is just how this kind of things work!” And she was right. She knew she was! She watched some very esteemed intellectuals do exactly what Pinkie just accused of being “boring”! Well maybe it’s not a party but it is still fun! Sharing each other's thoughts on an important subject... Right?

Why wouldn’t it be? After all... Well to be perfectly honest she did feel a little bad about the reaction, when she brought up “The Sackless Regicider” to demonstrate her point to Pinkie. The tale being among the stories taught in school, all three of her guests knew it well, but it felt strangely negative when the others started to speak their mind about the book.

While Twilight herself saw the story as a tale of misdirection and the misuse of magic, her friends seemed to bypass what she considered the core of the story and instead seemed to look more at the relationship of the protagonist, the poor young stallion and the witch who fooled him into killing his monarch.

“Well Ah don’t know about magic too much.” Applejack explained her thoughts. “But what stood out ta me is that somewhere deep down the witch herself grown to love the colt, as if regretin’ that she fooled him.”

“Are you kidding?” Pinkie disagreed. “She’s evil! She couldn’t have loved him! She just put him in a trance and puppeteered him like a vile... Well, witch! An evil, dark, vile, dirty, magicy witch!” she added while gesturing wildly and even mimicking a marionette.

“We-well... She did try to make him run away and went to this hearing.” Fluttershy would add.

Twilight was unsure what to make of this. On one hoof she knew she should be glad that her friends are discussing a fine book, but it felt like they were doing it the wrong way. Or were they? As Applejack brought up the possible, subtle love in the background, the unicorn had a realization that felt completely new to her: She missed it.

She knew the story, every little detail, every last little fact about it. Her mind just worked like that. Most books she needed to read but once, and months, even years later - even if not word to word - she could retell them with ease and without missing any important plot point or forgetting a single symbolic icon. But it never crossed her mind, that one of the characters could have feelings for another, if it wasn’t said openly. One thing she definitely did not expect was that her friends would show her something new.

Then again why should she care? The way characters feel about each other secretly is not going to change the message of the story!

'I’ve got it!' Pinkie’s voice from downstairs suddenly interrupted Twilight’s train of thought, pushing her back from the contemplation of past hours to the present.

The pink pony hopped into the room just seconds later, climbing the stairs with admirable speed. In her mouth she carefully held a copy of “North Wind and The Marble City of the Silent Sea” the first book in a surprisingly successful series of adventure stories. Twilight didn’t care too much for the whole lot of the collection, in fact she took a habit of not reading anything from its author, Scarlet Pen.

Today however, she had to make an exception to this rule - no doubt one that will later just strengthen it - because her friend insisted that it is one of the best books she have read so far. A statement Twilight found hard not to roll her eyes over. Never the less her friend insisted on reading this book and she owes her this much.

'So then you’re going to read it up?' asked Twilight, poorly hiding her lack of interest.

'Ahctually,' interrupted Applejack before Pinkie could even nod. 'Ah was thinkin’ that this being your club and all, you should be the one ta read it.'

Pinkie paused after what Applejack said, but only for a moment.

'Hey, yeah!' she agreed. 'It could be our thing, where we bring books and Twilight would be our reader and we’d all listen and then discuss it and then...' she continued, jabbering.

'Ehm,' Twilight started. At first she wanted to reject this “privilege”, but then again... 'Alright.' She gently took the book from Pinkie and flew it to herself.

Opening it at the first chapter she recognized the sentences as she read them earlier. She never did get past about the fifth chapter though, as the constant, pointless banther of the equally point- and weightless characters just bored her too much.

She took a deep breath, as if preparing to jump into a pool and looked at her friends if they are ready. Finally, she started reading.

The first chapter was exactly the way she remembered. It did little beyond describing a small town “somewhere near the borders of Equestria” and having some witty but not very clever characters have a duel of words with each other. North Wind, the protagonist herself did little, she simply established herself as a general low life who happens to travel a lot and thinks she’s somehow better because of this.

When she reached the end of the chapter Twilight put down the book and shared her disappointment with the others.

'Are you kidding?' Pinkie looked at the unicorn as if she said something very stupid, which didn’t sit well with Twilight.

'Well, were you listening?' Twilight defended. 'North Wind goes into this bar like she owns the place, gets into an argument with some random pony and boasts how great an adventurer she is!'

'But that’s not just some random pony!' Pinkie seemed somewhat hurt about her purple friend’s statement. They are obviously old friends!'

'Friends?' Twilight couldn’t believe her ears. 'What sort of friends would insult each other on every turn?'

'Well Ah think they’re obviously rivals...' joined in Applejack, then paused to gather her thoughts. 'but they sure do know an awful lot about each other. Ah don’t see why they would be around each other if those were words of hate.'

'Yeah!' Pinkie nodded. 'She totally went to the bar to meet him! I mean you READ how slimy the bartender looked! Who would drink something that pony makes? Ew!'

Twilight remained in a state silence for a few seconds, wondering. Now that her friends pointed it out, it was really there. It did make sense that the two ponies would be old rivals, sharing a mutual respect for each other and using witty insults to only kid around, even if she personally didn’t ever act this way. The question is: Why didn’t she notice it?

She just sighed and picked up the book once more, continuing at chapter two. Twilight decided to put extra attention to everything the characters say from now on and strangely enough, going through the chapter it felt as if she was reading a whole new book. The witty dialogue that made her roll her eyes upon the first read, that didn’t really lead to anything, now seemed to somehow give a kind of depth or atleast a back ground to the characters that Twilight never looked for previously.

She would always look forward in a story, searching for the solution of the problem as if it would be just another big puzzle. If nothing important was mentioned in a scene that would move her closer to the logical conclusion of the story or a deeper meaning then she simply acknowledged it as a pointless scene. In fact this series was the crown jewel of pointlessness in her mind up to this point.

Now however, as she read the banhter of the characters and even their mood-swings as they are chased across a town in a very unlikely manner; she felt less offended by the sheer stupidity of their enemies, who let them escape on every turn by but an inch; and instead paid attention to the way North Wind co operates with a couple of ponies to make her escape.

It obviously held no philosophical weight when she winked at a local barber before jumping out his window and into a different house across the street. But the fact that said barber opened the window for her and was wearing a necklace, eerily similar to one worn by the “random pony” from earlier, now made her think what sort of history they might have had. She remembered the last few chapters of the book, that she didn’t even bother to read; and thought that perhaps somewhere in those, the necklaces will be explained to be some sort of secret group’s symbol. Or maybe they are treasures a group of ponies found once and kept as a symbol of their brotherhood?

Twilight was completely surprised by her own feelings while she was reading the second chapter. It didn’t declare a single fact other than that North Wind has some mysterious enemies, it didn’t move the plot ahead any more than putting her on a train and it generally didn’t have any interesting thought about anything that may come back as a lesson in the future. Yet she somehow wanted to go on. There were so many small things she previously just glanced over like the medallion, and all of them told her that there is something in the background here that’s not being told, something not pointing to the future but rather to the past; and she wanted to know what it was.

'Are you ahlright Twi?' asked Applejack, interrupting the unicorn’s thoughts. Twilight had to realize that she was sitting in silence for at least half a minute since finishing the second chapter.

'Huh? Oh, yes. Yes, I’m alright. I was just thinking.' replied Twilight. 'I’ve noticed a few things that I didn’t before.' she explained then unconciously fell into silence again.

'Um, Pinkie?' Fluttershy started. 'You read the whole series, right? I just mean that, um I’m curious if there’s a reason why there’s constantly a pony in a black cape, following North.'

It took for a moment, but Twilight’s mind quickly realized that Fluttershy’s right. North Wind ran into a mysterious caped figure in both the bar from first chapter and at least three times here, everytime just as if she’d pass by some random pony.

'Oh, oh! Yeah!' Pinkie chirped. 'That’s Mr... Hey, no Spoilers silly!' she said wrinkling her eyebrows a little, which was enough to make Fluttershy pull back her neck a bit.

Curiosity started to make Twilight itch. She simply needed to know what’s going on in the background now. She couldn’t care less before, but now that she had a taste of this new mystery she had to find out what was happening. The unicorn cleared her throat and was just about to continue the story when Applejack interrupted:

'Ah’m sorry sugar cube, but would you mind if we’d talk about what happened so far? Ah think Ah’m a little lost, about what’s going on.'

The purple pony paused before answering. She really wanted to read on and find out everything but then again, she made this whole group for her friends so...

A bit hesitantly, but she put the book down, nodding at her orange friend who then started asking a few questions which were then quickly answered by Pinkie who seemed to be a real expert at this series. Twilight used this time to think for a bit.

Obviously she was wrong earlier. She thought this was a terrible book, good for no more than passing time, void of all interest. Then again on a level she was right. This was nothing like the works of Swift Quill, Ink Weave or any other great and legendary author. Yet it had something very different that perhaps in turn those books lacked: A charm.

She was right, as that there is nothing grand to learn from this, but there is so much to see! So much small details that perhaps, if not glanced over, can show a much richer world than any “meaningful” story. Details that can explain not a message but a character.

She was so terribly wrong. How could she think that characters in a book are but tools? Props to convey a message? Sure often they are that, but does that mean that this is all they should be? A character with a deep history, a vivid personality and a real view on the world around it is perhaps nothing less than a real pony. Perhaps the best messages to be found in a story are not something that deals with big things. Perhaps they are messages about the smaller bits of life, messages one can overlook if not caring enough to watch for them. And maybe it can be the other way around aswell? Maybe the reason other ponies don’t enjoy the books she does is that they turn a blind eye on the bigger picture to enjoy the smaller one? Or maybe she’s just over thinking it.

Still, it should be important what a character is like, as that is why they do what they do and perhaps, just perhaps that itself is something she can learn from. Something through which she can learn to better understand strangers... Strangers.

Twilight looked at the nearest clock and noted that it was now over four hours since her friends came over to cheer her up. If everything went according to plan then the teal unicorn arrived in Canterlot many hours ago and is probably with Princess Celestia right now, trying to get his book back.

Her eyes moved over to the cabinet on which she placed the unopened letter and her heart sunk down a bit. She shouldn’t have just put him off like that.

'Um, we’ve been here quite long.' she said, interrupting Pinkie Pie who was jabbering again, trying to explain what a strudel is; though frankly, Twilight had no idea how her friends’ conversation made its way, from the bar in the first chapter, to a careful detailing of the meal eaten by one of its customers. 'Don’t you think we should stop for tonight?'

Her friends looked at the clock and after Pinkie protesting a bit that ‘they just can’t leave the story when it’s about to get interesting’ and ‘it isn’t even that late’ they agreed that it’s time to wrap up the first session.

The unicorn’s mind already locked on to the envelope on her cabinet and she didn’t pay much attention to when Pinkie started listing ponies who she would invite to next meeting and just nodded automatically. She walked her friends out and said her good-byes as a drone, then hurried back up to her room as soon as the door was closed behind them.

How could she just put off that stallion’s letter like that? The least she owes him is reading his letter and as it is, for better or for worse this will be the last thing she hears from him. She stepped to the cabinet and lifted the sealed envelope from its place. Taking a deep breath, unsure as what to expect, she opened it and took a folded piece of paper out. Unfolding it, she started to read.

Dear Miss Twilight Sparkle!

First of all, excuse me if I neglect the use of proper language or mannerisms (should they even exist) when writing this letter. This is the second one I wrote in all my life after all!

I didn’t have the fortune to know you previously, but I suspect that the closed, almost depressed expression I saw on you these past days was something exclusive to me. I’m terribly sorry if I have upset you, Miss Sparkle. I’m unsure of the reason though, I suppose it is either my unlikely history or the coldness I’ve shown after you admitted to sending my spell book to the Princess.

Please, let me reassure you that any negative feelings I may have shown are not against you personally. In fact you are one of the most wonderful creatures I came across in my travels. You possibly saved my life, asked one of your friends to accept me as a guest, another to make a splendid suit for me and then you even sat with me and allowed me to speak my mind last night.

For these acts I am more grateful than the written word could ever explain. So I’d just like to say this: Thank you Miss Twilight Sparkle.

With gratitude and respect;
- Oakleaf ‘The Vagrant’ ~ SP

Twilight had absolutely no idea what feeling she was experiencing when she put down the letter. As a matter of fact she wasn’t sure it was even a proper feeling. She felt happiness on her face, a gladness that the teal stallion after all of this does not hate her and does not believe she has wronged her. On her back, she felt a cold gust of doubt, after all the stallion may not have known that the reason she sent him to Applejack of all ponies was to have him under watchful eyes. Halfway in between, on the back of her head reason built a heavy, uncomfotable blockade, fending off the cold, saying that this is a very clever pony, he probably knew it all along just didn’t feel it necessary to mention. Down near her stomach a small protest claimed that he might have been sarcastic in his letter. But the final word was her mind’s.

“It’s over.” It was that simple. She did try to do her best and even if she failed there is nothing left to do about it. The stallion seemed honest in this letter and he didn’t blame her for anything, perhaps out of ignorance or not, it doesn’t really matter anymore. The best she can - and should - do is to wish good luck to the the teal unicorn whereever he may end up.

The cold slowly melted off of her back by the soothing of her mind, reason retreated from the back of her head as it no longer had anything to fend off and doubt found itself without a target. The only thing still lingering was the warm, glad smile on her face.

Somehow she didn’t feel like throwing this letter out, so after a bit of hesitation she packed the letter back into its envelope, then opened one of the other cabinets, where she kept her old mailings with the Princess and flew it in there, aside from the rest.

With the stallion’s weight finally off her chest, she lifted Scarlet Pen’s book from the floor where she left it and walked over to her bed. She found it funny really, there was one thing she was completely sure of some time ago: That there will never be a day when she’s more eager for starting a Scarlet Pen book than finishing one by Swift Quill. And she just shattered that belief to pieces.

Then again, that is the wisdom that keeps Deep Word’s legend alive. That is why she knows, that even if she missed out on books like this, she can be glad she read the ones she didn’t miss out on.

The Royal Council of Magical Practices

'Sweets...' sounded sweetly in Clover Cover’s ears. 'Sweets?...' the voice repeated gently. '…Clover!'

'What time is it?' she asked drowsily, rolling over under her blanket towards where Cres’s voice was coming from, but keeping her eyes shut.

'It’s about time you woke up! But if you need to know, just give me a moment and...' his voice paused for a moment and Clover could hear a few clops as he took a few steps in the bedroom. 'Yes then! Welcome to another wonderful Saturday in the beautiful and magnificent city of Canterlot! Clocking in at a nice seven thirteen in the morning! Come on! Open those eyes and get up! Or don’t! First a quick pop-quiz: Why is Canterlot so magnificent my dear?' asked Cres almost laughing.

'Mmm. Because if my nose doesn’t fool me, it houses some of your pancakes?' Clover replied while a smile crawled onto her face.

'Well now. I was going to say something sappy like “Because you’re in it.”, but I can’t deny the truth; my pancakes truly are the stuff of legends.' Cres laughed and Clover felt a small kiss on her forehead. 'Though, really now, it’s time to get up. I can’t believe you are this tired.'

'Don’t you go blaming me for that.' Clover countered then pulled the blanket higher. 'Pancakes can wa-'

This was as far as she got before she felt the entire blanket flying off of her and she opened her eyes.

'You’re such a drover!' she shouted at the smiling unicorn and laughed. 'But seriously, could I please go back to sleep.'

'I could allow that, yes.' said Cres thoughtfully, lowering the blanket that he hovered just out of hoof’s reach over his fiancée. 'But,' here he threw the blanket away into an armchair in the corner of the room. 'you’d never forgive me for letting you miss the hearing we’re supposed to hear in a... Darn I wanted to say another “hear” word but there are just not that many of them are there? Anyway the punch line is that we’ve got a bit over two hours for you to drink your coffee, eat my brilliant pancakes, read the paper, get dressed and take a walk to the castle with the most handsome unicorn in town. So move it, move it, move it! I’ve already been to Dad’s house while you were just snoozing here, so it’s time to get busy for you!'

'The most handsome unicorn?' Clover asked while giving in and slowly climbing off the bed. 'I never would have guessed that Fancy-Pants is intereste...'

'Don’t go there or I’ll eat the pancakes and you’ll have to do with my less amazing salad.'

'Mmmph. Drover!'

'You didn’t tell me what your father had to say about us dropping in on the hearing.' Clover noted as they were walking to the castle, only half an hour before the hearing. Cres was wearing his usual suit and she was doomed to wear the formal, gray dress composed of a relatively short cape and a jacket, that always made her itch. There wasn’t much to be done though, one could not expect to get a free ticket to the most high priority of events while wearing nothing but a hat.

'He didn’t have anything to say, since I didn’t mention it' replied Cres indifferently.

'Wait, you didn’t?'

'Not really. I was going to, in fact that’s why I went to him in the first place, but he didn’t let me speak a word as he rambled on about “having an important meeting at nine thirty in the Castle”. Besides it’s not sure, he just said he’ll request permission for us.'

'Alright, it’s your funeral Cres' Clover noted with a hidden smile.

'Shh, you know Dad’s not like that!' Cres replied, keeping his eyes on the Castle just a couple hundred yards ahead of them.

'Tssk. And you know that I don’t mean it.' she countered and leaned to the stallion’s side, something she almost instantly stopped as the dress turned even itchier this way. Crescent looked at the mare and smiled as their eyes met. He looked back ahead and stayed in silence. Thanks to the many years they’ve been together, Clover could tell when he’s thinking deeply so she didn’t say a word.

In her thoughts she recounted the conversation she had with the teal unicorn yesterday, the idea that one spell tome could change so many things seemed unlikely but scary nonetheless. She had to wonder if this was what made Twilight upset, as Oakleaf noted. Maybe the young unicorn too was afraid about such a thing? She can’t be sure. Poor Twilight. There was something about that filly that made Clover feel very close. She watched her grow up, exchanged a lot thoughts - the filly's first deep thoughts - with her and knew the unicorn was simply brilliant... She just wished to know that Twilight’s happy, as she definitely deserves to be.

'Snap out of it Sweets.' said Cres under his nose and Clover realized they were already in the Castle. She managed to drift off again somehow. 'Guard said we should go to the council chamber and wait for the hearing there, in case you weren’t paying attention.'

'Sorry, about that.' Clover replied.

'Don’t worry about it.' the stallion smiled at her.

They quietly made their way through the castle. Every clop after their steps felt as a heresy against the sacred silence of the nearly empty castle that seemed to house no more than a couple of guards who shown no sign of life beyond an occasional blink.

Finally after a few long corridors, they made it to the Academy wing of the castle, where - among other things - the rooms of Celestia’s magic school and the council chamber were built. Their steps were no longer the sole source of noise now, in the distance she could hear familiar voices. Getting closer, she soon realized they’re coming from the council chamber and are the voices of the council’s members.

'I’m not saying we shouldn’t!' she heard the deep voice of the old Professor Flame. 'But we should study it passively.

'I understand your caution Tranquil.' Professor Light’s gentle, feminine voice replied. 'Though you have to agree that Gleam has a point. She’s right when she says that we should do what’s best for the future, not what’s best for right now.'

'The future? How far away future do you mean? If we...' started Proffesor Flame’s voice but was interrupted as Cres opened the chamber’s door with Clover by his side. A few moments of silence fell that gave Clover a chance to breath in her new surroundings.

The council chamber was a large round room with seats positioned around at the walls, forming a sort of stairway down towards the middle, where there was a comfortably sized empty space. Clover imagined the speakers always stand there. Visibly, there were more seats than what was necessary for the council’s members, but she found it understandable, as they sometimes hosted conferences with many invited specialists. Only thing breaking the symmetry of the room was the door and above it a single balcony, no doubt it’s entrance was on the second floor - where the Princess’s personal library and office was placed. Right now the members of the council were standing in the small empty area.

Clover noticed that most of the council wore their same old attire which for almost all of them consisted of a seemingly random jacket and tie. None of them followed the formal black/white rule. Most wore brown or greenish jackets, some of them even wore checkered jackets riddled with many dark and dim colours.In short, they were anything but formal. Clover had to realize that she probably took on this itchy attire for nothing.

'What are you doing here?' asked the white coated Professor Glare, Cres’s father.

'Oakleaf asked us to be here for his hearing.' Cres replied in a tone as if being invited to such a hearing was the most natural thing in the world, which of course it wasn’t.

'So he did.' replied Professor Glare after a short silence. 'Well I hope none of you will mind if my son and Miss Clov- Excuse me, Cover will attend this once?'

'I don’t mind but the pegasus representative might take issue.' noted the crimson coated, wrinkly old Professor Flame. When he mentioned the pegasus, Clover and Cres looked at each other.

'I hope he doesn’t. After all: there wasn’t any word of the Earth Ponies wishing to interfere in this, but it’s not a bad idea to have one of them here.' Professor Light replied to him with a smile on her vanilla face. 'Who better to represent them in a matter of magic than Miss Cover?'

Professor Flame just raised his eyebrows at his colleague, but didn’t argue further. No one else seemed to have a problem with the idea, though the light greenish Professor Gleam exchanged a few words with Professor Flame in quiet. This could have been about their previous conversation, if they don't look towards the two new comers at the same time. Somepony noted that the hearing should start in less than ten minutes and so most of the members found a place among the seats and retreated to quiet discussions with their neighbours. The elder Glare told them to take a seat somewhere a bit apart of the council members, so not to disturb them, then headed after Professor Light.

'Well that definitely went smoother than I expected.' said Cres and started going towards an empty row across from the balcony.

'It feels strange that the room is this empty.' noted Clover as she followed him. 'I mean I know the whole council is here, but it feels as if there should be more ponies.'

'And Flame said “representative”. In singular. I’m not sure if they just don’t consider this too important or if they’re actually trying to keep it a secret.'

'Could be both.'

'I don't know. Perhaps they think that if there is too much of a parade around it, then it could get out of hooves.'

They chose two seats in the middle of the row. Clover tried to listen in on what the council members were talking about, but they were too quiet. Naturally, she would never have written down any of it, without permission at least, but she was curious.

Having talked about the hearing during breakfast, Clover and Cres didn’t have much else to add. They didn’t get beyond yesterday’s point of “it’ll probably be alright”, but this was still a very unique situation. Clover couldn’t help but feel that something will go wrong.

'It will be alright.' whispered Cres to her quietly, looking at him Clover was greeted with a supportive smile. 'I swear, if this Oakleaf doesn’t walk out of here as a celebrated stallion, I have officially lost my faith in magic!'

Clover just smiled back but didn’t say a word.

A few minutes later the door they came in through opened again and the teal unicorn stepped in. Clover saw a flash of gold through the opening, suggesting that he was escorted by the royal guard, but they stayed out. The unicorn himself wore the same gray outfit as yesterday and courteously taken his hat off as soon as he stepped into the council chamber.

'Well uh... Good morning!' Oakleaf seemed a bit lost and there was a bit of fright on his face while he gave his greetings and walked down into the middle of the room, but it dimmed down as his eyes found Cres and Clover.

'Good morning Mr. Oakleaf.' returned the gesture Professor Willow, the oldest mare and ‘head’ of the RCMP. She was the head in only title though, she’d rather let her fellow members do as they will, as there weren’t many things in need of moderation in this council to begin with. - I hope you don’t mind that we asked the princess to delay your hearing while we look through your book.

'Oh, not all.' Oakleaf shook his head. 'I have read of your council’s history and it’s an honour to be invited here.'

'You act very humble.' Professor Gleam noted. 'I'd like to make clear that you have no reason to. I think I can speak on behalf of the whole council when I say that we were amazed by the brilliance you've shown in this book. It is hard to believe a stallion relatively young like yourself could make so many discoveries.'

'To be honest,' started Oakleaf. 'as I already explained to Miss Cover in some extent, much of my "discoveries" are based off of the amazing talents and wisdom of far away cultures that I've met.'

'We are all standing on the shoulder of giants.' said Professor Flame simply. 'It makes your work non the less impressive.'

Almost as soon as Flame finished, the sound of a door opening sounded, but it wasn’t the main entrance, instead the baclony’s door was the source. Clover had an almost straight view of the balcony so she was among the firsts to see as the two princesses stepped in accompanied by a not particularly old, but hunched pegasus. Clover recognized the pegasus almost instantly, she was well known as a voice of Cloudsdale and Weather Science in Canterlot. Her name was Gloomy Cloud and though her parents originally named her this for her dark gray coat, she sometimes shown another meaning for the name.

The three mares created a strange slope of emotions, size and even colour as Celestia stood at the right of the right side of the balcony with her ever present, benevolent smile; next to her the younger Princess Luna who looked with a somewhat curious thoughtfulness at the council and finally the even darker coloured, gray, mortal pegasus with a tired and irritated look on her face.

'Thank you all for coming so early.' Celestia said in her usual, kind tone. To her greeting everypony in the room - except Oakleaf - bowed their head instinctively. 'I trust it was Miss Clover and Professor Glare’s son, that you mentioned in your message Mr. Oakleaf. They are of course welcome to stay and listen. Now as it seems that we’re all here, I think...' she paused for a moment and exchanged looks with her sister who just shook her head. 'I think we’re ready to begin.'

As she said the final words, the Princess sat down on the balcony and the two mares by her side followed. Professor Willow then started to “briefly” document the council’s thoughts on the spell book and its contents, mainly aiming her words towards Gloomy Cloud who kept her eyes on the uncomfortable looking Oakleaf.

'I didn’t think Princess Luna would attend.' whispered Cres. Clover saw that some of the council too were blinking towards the dark blue alicorn on occasion.

'Well, I know she only made few public appearances, but she’s not a hermit... And this is important.' replied the mare quietly.

'I mean I didn’t think she’d be necessary here. I didn’t think Celestia would need her here.'

'Maybe she wanted to come.' Clover proposed to which Cres paused for a moment then shrugged.

Professor Willow finally finished her documentations. Mostly she spoke in academic terms, but the main message was that they found the spell book to be often beyond their current understanding. What they did understand however, was that these spells are capable of allowing the use of magic into new areas of life.

'I'd like to ask now that you make any statements that you would like to be heard before the actual hearing begins.' she finished turning to Oakleaf.

'I have but two things to say right now.' replied Oakleaf. 'Firstly, I'd like to release all my rights upon the spell book to the princesses, who I trust will do with it what they find best. Secondly, I am perfectly aware that this hearing is hardly about me, but I'm willing and eager to aid as a consultant in the issues present and am hoping to be able to do the best that such a role implies.'

Clover half expected that the room would start whispering now, but it seems the council was hardly shocked by the statement. Only real movement was as Princess Luna looked back at her sister.

'What issues would these be? More important than yourself?' asked Gloomy Cloud.

'Same ones that lead you - an Equestiran pegasus - here to a council dedicated to the study of magic. The false belief that my spells aim to aid none but unicorn kind to a place above the others.' the teal unicorn explained calmly. 'The false belief that I managed to do the impossible and replicate pegasus magic.'

'Then you deny the validity of the weather control spells found in your tome?' asked Cloud.

'The council examined the weather spells and found them theoretically correct, with no visible flaws.' noted Professor Flame.

'Yes, they are perfectly functional, but I must admit they are barely cheap attempts at mimicking a pegasus's abilities. You must understand that they were born of necessity as tools of my survival.'

'How or why these spells were created is not important.' said Cloud in a harsh tone. 'What is important is that they will take place of pegasi workers!'

Clover noticed that the smile disappeared off of Celestia's face and instead she was following the events with a sad concern.

'Unimportant?' asked Professor Glare. 'I respect your concerns about the practical use of these spells, but this tone is unacceptable! I'm insulted that we were forced to transform such a learning opportunity into a shameful trial, of an innocent stallion!'

'He may be innocent,' replied Cloud 'but that doesn't mean he's not dangerous! I will not allow the economy to be brought down because unicorns made the entire weather industry obsolete!'

'That was never his idea!' retorted Glare, absolutely forsaking the manners that should be displayed in the council and in the company of royalty. 'He created these spells to survive and did it brilliantly!'

'When mentioning unicorns, I didn't mean him specifically.' Cloud countered coldly.

'What does that supposed to...' started Professor Glare but was interrupted by Oakleaf.

'Professor, please. Thank you for your words, but I must say...' started Oak then sighed. 'I must say that to some extent, what Miss Cloud speaks of, is possible.'

'Then you admit it?' Cloud asked.

'Admit what exactly? That I created spells that saved my life in the harsh world beyond Equestria's borders? That I did what I could to survive? Yes. If you mean if I admit, to having nothing but spells that would break the balance in Equestria on the other hoof, then I must say that i don't admit to it, for it is untrue. I have seen things that I dare say few of you could believe. Things, that I've learned from and things that I wrote down. I have see magic being used without the help of unicorns.

Now came the whispering that Clover expected earlier, so much so that it was almost just talking over each other's voice. Clover turned to Cres.

'Do you think it's smart that he mentioned this?'

'I'm not sure.' admitted Cres then raised his head towards the balcony. 'It seems even the Princesses were moderately surprised about this.'

'And what about your father? I didn't see him this upset in a very long time.'

'Well, for one you know how highly he thinks of magic. He would never allow anypony to stand in it's advancement. But I think he might also hate that mare specifically, she did write a very harshly toned request to change the restrictions of magic, after that unicorn nearly died participating in a pegasus flying competition.'

Finally Professor Light broke through all the speech and addressed Oakleaf.

'What exactly are you talking about?'

'I had suspected that you've already found what I'm referring to in my book and understood it, but as it doesn't seem to be the case, I'll explain briefly: I've met a group of earth ponies very far away who were able to use magic to help themselves in small ways.' he said simply, then paused as the noise risen in the chamber.

'That is impossible.' Professor Flame dismissed him. 'It was...'

'...proven that the direct use of magic is a skill unique to beings in possession of an alicorn horn, for only that may bend magic to the whims of the mind.' finished Oakleaf. 'Yes, I know. I'd like to think that I'm particularly well read so I know about this law. What I also know about, but it's creator did not is that there is a large difference between unicorn magic and any other. What you also neglected to notice that earth pony and pegasus magics were never controlled with will, they are born of instinct! That removes them from the law. Still, it is impossible to replicate either as the various essences of magic are simply not interchangeable.

'Can you prove any of this?' asked Professor Willow in a curious tone.

'Well, I must confess that I had my reasons when I invited Miss Cover here.' started Oakleaf to which almost every eye turned to the beige earth pony. Clover knew all of the council personally, but couldn't help but blush at the sudden attention. 'If she can forgive my rudeness and the council will raise no opposition, I'd like to ask that she assists me in a presentation.'

Clover felt like a statue, which she acknowledged to the fact that now even the princesses were looking at her. Cres felt this so he stood up and reached for her with one hoof. Somehow, this made her feel better and she stood up and was escorted down by her fiancé. Once in the middle, the two stallions exchanged looks and Cres stepped back.

'I hope you don't mind this.' Oakleaf said quietly to Clover. 'I just hope I can show them something that might lead to a lot of good in the future.'

The mare just nodded with a strained expression on her face.

'Well then!' Oakleaf raised his voice and lifted his hat high into the air. 'Notice the teal gleam around my hat, an obvious sign of my magic levitating it. The gleam is present around my horn as well. If you would give me your hoof Miss Cover?'

Clover reached her hoof towards Oakleaf who once again touched his own against it and a moment later neither the unicorn's horn. nor the hat had the teal gleam around them.

'The hat is still levitating but is no longer held there by my magic.' Oakleaf said. 'It is held there by none other than Miss Cover.'

'This is trickery.' Flame said indifferently.

'Trickery? Then how would I do it?' countered Oakleaf calmly. 'You should all feel the lack of magical activity from myself. It's impossible to shield such a thing! And why would you doubt her power? Because no earth pony ever done such a thing? Hardly. There are countless legends where non-unicorns possessed magical powers. It is even said that the Elements of Harmony were once used by mortal ponies of whom not all were unicorns! Now this may only be a legend to you, but...'

'Actually,' interrupted Clover. 'the Elements of Harmony are again in the possession of ponies and four of them are not unicorns.'

'What?' Oakleaf was baffled. Apparently the past two days was not enough to catch up on everything that happened in Equestria since the last book he read was printed. He looked up at the balcony, specifically at Princess Luna and muttered: 'So that wasn't Celestia's doing?'

'Twilight Sparkle is actually one of the holders of the elements.'

Oakleaf stopped and looked at Clover blankly. It seemed that he was thinking deeply. Clover heard Professor Light chuckle quietly but it died down soon. Suddenly Oaklead thrown up his head and continued at the council in his original pace:

'Exactly! There is absolutely no way that a magical artifact may be used by a creature not possessing magic that it can control!' he said. 'The only problem is that with unicorn presence, there was little room and need for the exploration of other magics! Now this one trick with the hat is of course not an earth pony's own. Their magic, unlike ours is an inner one based off of feelings and instinct. What I have done instead is something beyond any of the races' basic capabilities: I have allowed her to use her magic through myself.'

'What do you think this may bring?' asked Willow talking through the sound of the revived whispering.

'That is completely dependent of yourselves and the ponies of Equestria.' said Oakleaf smiling. 'One thing is for sure: The possibilities are endless.'

'It must be my fault,' started Gloomy Cloud. 'but the only possibilities I see just put every pony at the unicorns's hoof. Let's say they help the other races use magic as you have shown, what is stopping them from withdrawing this help? If we create an Equestria where they grant everypony magic, nopony will be able to live without it.'

'I must agree. Thine spells would bring great imbalance.' noted Princess Luna. The younger princess raising her voice so suddenly surprised even the council. 'What Gloomy Cloud did not mention however was that thine other spells lead to this as well! While magic's study must be sacred, thou brings great danger by allowing unicorns any control over the weather, not to mention: the use of nature's power.'

'Clover?' signaled Cres. 'I think we're ought to go back to our place now.' Clover just nodded and they walked back to their row to be away from the attention. Oakleaf's hat sheepishly followed them.

'I perfectly understand your concerns.' replied Oakleaf after a little thinking. 'I believe your fear is not of imbalance though, as you say, but of something much more insidious: Distrust. Or are you not afraid that the changes brought would shatter the unity of Equestria? After all: That is what all great thinkers were afraid of since the country's creation, is it not? The return of the old, dark days. I believe you my princess understand this the most.'

'What does thou mean under those words?!' Luna replied raising her tone and equipping a destructive gaze. Even her mane seemed to wave faster in the still air of the chamber.

'What I mean my princess,' started Oakleaf calmly, standing the princess' stare without a wince and looking directly in her eyes. 'is that you possess experiences that lead you to great wisdom concerning the nature of jealously and hate. You love, and fear for Equestria just as much as your sister and wish its ponies nothing but good. The thought that they may fall into an all too familiar abyss of emotions, and throw aside what connects them, is your greatest fear.

'What in Equestria's name does he think he's doing?' whispered Clover, shaking slightly. There was a silent belief, around Equestria, a phantom fear that maybe, just maybe the princess may fall back into her dark self. This unicorn perhaps had no idea what he was playing with.

'But' continued Oakleaf, still not moving his stare from the Princess's eyes but speaking in an even softer tone, almost kindly. 'that is what makes a true leader. That is why I did what I did and left my tome to you and Princess Celestia's will. Because I know that if there is anypony who can make the right decision, then it's not me, not a pegasus, not a council of mages and definitely not all these together. It's somepony for whom the consequences are not phantom images a future never seen, not fake nightmares that disappear with the first steps in the morning, but a reality. My only goal is to present everything to the two of you that you will need to make the best decision.'

Luna's mane slowed it's waving and her expression softened.

'Haha.' chuckled Celestia suddenly, which sent the entire chamber into total silence. 'No, continue.' she said noticing the looks. 'It's just rare to see somepony treat us as nothing more than we really are.'

'Being the guardians of Equestria is not a small task.' noted Oakleaf. 'Nor is enduring immortality in solitude. Excuse me if I suggested having anything, but the greatest respect for either of you.'

Celestia just smiled and fell back into silence. Luna exchanged a few mysterious looks with her then sighed. Clover

'Tho... You seem very convinced that there is more good to be had from your work than danger.' Luna continued in a slower, refined tone. 'Would t-you elaborate?’

‘Well, excuse me Princess,’ Cloud interrupted. ‘but I insist on hearing the downsides. I don’t want to be charmed by some sugar coated story from a smooth talker!’

‘I believed that we already established that side of the problem.’ said Professor Flame calmly. ‘Or are there any more points you’d wish to add?’

‘No new points, but details.’ replied Cloud, paying but a moment’s attention to the old professor before returning her eyes to the teal stallion. ‘He himself admitted that his spells can be a danger to our way of life. I’d like to hear him elaborate on that.’

‘It is true.’ nodded Oakleaf reluctantly. ‘I must admit that my spells indeed could be used in a way which would end the weather industry in its current state, but only if...’

‘How exactly are you planning to remedy that?’ Gloomy Cloud interrupted.

‘But only if’ Oakleaf continued decidedly. ‘they are used carelessly, without any moderation.’

‘What would guarantee moderation?’ asked Cloud raising her tone.

‘I would like to remind you,’ started Professor Glare in Oakleaf’s defense. ‘that we are in a chamber dedicated to the study and moderation of magic!’

Clover saw that Oakleaf just hangs his head slightly, away from the coming argument. She took a quick glimpse at Cres who obviously wanted to look calm and stolid, but was following every word of his father with wide, shocked and somewhat frightful eyes. She leaned to his side a bit but didn’t say a word. The stallion only shook a bit when they touched, but didn’t take his eyes off of the elder unicorn.

‘Astral!’ raised his voice Professor Flame, addressing Glare. ‘Calm down.’

‘She’s abusing her position and disgracing both us and the princesses with her words.’ Professor Glare replied angrily.

‘And you are disgracing yourself!’ countered Flame.

‘I have a right to know everything so I may defend the pegasi!’ came from Cloud.

‘You have no right to attack him like this!’ Professor Glare turned back to the pegasus. ‘Unlike you, he’s been cooperating!’

‘That is enough!’ yelled Professor Willow. She looked completely shocked and some what angered by the behaviour displayed in the chamber, Clover doubted that anything like this had happened before. ‘She may ask what she wishes Astral.’ she said turning to Professor Glare. ‘You should let her do her duty. But,’ Here she turned to the pegasus. ‘I’d like to request that you also display a more civic tone in my council’s chamber. If you would proceed Mr. Oakleaf?’

‘Thank you.’ Oakleaf said simply, raising his head. ‘As Professor Glare said, this is indeed an establishment for the moderation of magic. However, I knew that someponies might find it not the best judge in this argument, I very audibly left my work to the Princesses. If their judgement is not something you find as something worthy of your thrust, I’m afraid I can’t help. Where I can help is - as I said - in the providing of information and I was not allowed to finish an important point I attmepted to bring up when I asked Miss Cover to join be here...’ he paused for a bit then continued in a bit lighter, unsure voice. ‘I have mentioned the Elements of Harmony. Artifacts that increase the power of a single creature or create a unity between multiple entities, combining their magic into a singular force. This... This is not an ability unique to the Elements.’

Oakleaf paused and took a few steps around. Nopony interrupted the silence, waiting for him to continue, but Clover noticed a few heads bending together, exchanging thoughts.

‘This is incredibly difficult to explain because there were so few occurrences of such an event. In fact when there was, it was rarely recognized. For example, as little as you can possibly notice, having lived in Equestria for probably all your lives, there is in fact a certain magic in the air. I’m sorry that I need to use such broad expressions, but this is the truth. The unity of Equestria results in sort of aura. This same aura is what keeps many evils away from this land, most notably and obviously: The windigos. However, unlike the way it was taught for ages upon ages, this power... This unity is not beyond understanding.’ he explained, then stopped again, perhaps gathering his thoughts.

‘Are you implying that the spell that you’ve helped Miss Cover cast, is not unlike the “spell” that banished the windigos?’

‘It is much more like that than anything that can be described using your terms of magic.’ Oakleaf replied. ‘Let’s put it this way: There are three main colours right? Red, Blue and Yellow. Combining these, an artist can create any colour of the rainbow. In fact, the colour palette is often shown as a sphere with the colours running around. Now I could already say that Unicorn, Pegasi and Earth Pony magics are like the three main colours of magic, but that wouldn’t be exactly true. Still for the sake of the argument, let’s skip that... United, they can create things that none may dream of on their own. Am I making any sense with this explanation?’

‘I believe I understand.’ nodded the relatively young, dark blue Professor Gleam. ‘The general concept, that is. What you are saying is that you are able to make a connection between ponies of different races, creating spells that replicate the effects of the Elements?’

‘Oh no! No, no, no!’ Oakleaf shook his head. ‘Well... Maybe.’ he paused. ‘The technique is very far from perfect. Given the two sided blessing of my “misplacement”, I managed to find the core of this ability, but it would be very foolish to say that I could have managed to reach its peek. Still, you need to imagine! If we say that Pegasuses, who control the weather are represented by Blue while Unicorns, the tamers of the basic elements are Red, who could say what Violet my bring? Simply a union of the two or something completely new, something that was never seen before? Something that could prove invaluable to all?’

‘And of course at the heart of it would be the Unicorns, controlling these “unions”?’ asked Gloomy Cloud in a displeased tone.

‘In the heart of this would be all of Equestria!’ replied Oakleaf who’s voice suggested that he’s really starting to get annoyed by the pegasus’s unfair interruptions. ‘With proper study there is no telling what could be unlocked! I believe that through true union, by connecting the all the magics of the world, we could make something that was never before seen! Something grand.’

‘Perhaps even grander than the Alicorns?’ asked Cloud.

‘Why not?’ asked Oakleaf after a while. ‘I would ask the Princesses personally, would you not like to see such a possibility? I doubt that either of you would wish to remain the sole bearers of burden when it comes to the upholding Equestria. Would you not accept with gladness that you are joined by others - perhaps by then not much unlike yourselves?’

A small pause came in which Luna and Celestia looked into each others eyes, the sun’s princess smiling kindly while her sister seemed a bit more cautious.

‘We aren’t sure what to make of such a claim.’ Luna said finally to which Oakleaf looked up at Gloomy Cloud an smiled with a satisfied expression.

‘Exactly.’ he said.

‘Exactly?’ repeated the pegasus.

‘I did give them my book.’ said Oakleaf. ‘Do you truly think that I expected them to make a decision today? To decide everything right here in our company? No. I gave them the book that they may use it as they wish, when they wish to do so. They may not know what such a new proposition may hold now, nor do I or any of the other ponies in this chamber. They however have both the wisdom and time to decide, eventually. You can pick at me all you want, but I hold nothing that could harm you. I gave the only thing that I had that could pose any danger to your way of life, to the wisest ponies I have knowledge of. If that is not satisfactory on your part, then - again - I’m afraid I can’t help you.’ Somepony from the council laughed up at this part, obviously he too shared Glare’s less than enthusiastic disposition at the pegasus’s presence. The rest of the chamber retreated into discussion once more.

Clover was surprised when suddenly Cres whispered a few words: ‘Well it doesn’t look like he needed Dad’s help.’ The stallion still seemed a bit shook up about the previous argument, but pulled off the stolid look a lot more believably.

‘You were right.’ Clover said leaning a bit more to the unicron’s side.

‘Huh?’ the stallion turned to her with a confused look.

‘You said everything will be fine.’ replied Clover quietly. ‘It seems he’s bent on proving you right.’

‘Heh, maybe I should thank him for that after the hearing?’ Cres smiled at his fiancée, then looked back at the teal unicorn down in the middle of the chamber. ‘He definitely handles himself better than I had thought he would.’

Clover could imagine why, the stallion spent decades in a distant land, surrounded by dangers she could probably not even imagine to be real. She found it hard to imagine that in the same time she’s been living in Canterlot, drinking tea, reading-, writing books, going to watch plays and just generally living a comfortable life, this somewhat quirky stallion wearing that fine gray suit was living under the stars and trying to communicate with strange creatures.

A few moments later Celestia stood up silently, which was only announced in the entire room because her mane changed the distribution of light as it sailed across the balcony.

‘I would like to thank you for sharing your thoughts Mr Oakleaf.’ she said and though she spoke in a kind, quiet tone, her voice rang through the entire chamber. She turned her head and smiled at the boiling pegasus. ‘I’m hoping that you didn’t take this argument too much to heart Miss Cloud. I can promise that my sister and I are not going to make a decision hastily and will keep your concerns at heart always.’ The pegasus seemed to calm down as she looked at the pure white princess, but she paid another angry glimpse to Oakleaf’s general direction. ‘I’m frankly unsure if there is anything left to be done here and now. Is there anything that any of you would like to say before we close?’

‘If you allow,’ began Professor Flame. ‘I do not believe that all of the tome would pose harm. I’d simply like to propose that the council may proceed to study the more “usual” spells, such as the transmutation spells or even the lesser illusion spells.’

The two princesses exchanged another set of looks then Luna replied: ‘We shall soon release these to your care.’

‘Also if it’s not against your will,’ added Professor Glare. ‘I would request that Mr Oakleaf be allowed to aid us in our research for obvious reasons.’

‘I’m sorry, but I don’t believe I will live with that offer.’ said Oakleaf as soon as Glare finished. ‘It would be an honour, but I’m afraid I am done with magic.’

‘Huh?’ breathed Professor Glare and from the sounds it seemed most of the chamber shared in his surprise. Clover and Cres were shocked by this too, Oaklead didn’t say anything about his plans in the future given the current situation, but it seemed impossible, illogical even for him to “be done with magic”.

‘What does you mean?’ addressed him Princess Luna.

‘I’m sorry, but I’m tired of magic. I’ve seen more of it in my time than I ever wanted. I am honoured to be of use, but I do not wish to deal with it any more, perhaps... Perhaps once, as a hobby. But no. I don’t want to be here and explore magic.’ Oakleaf explained.

‘But what is it that you want to do then?’ asked Cres suddenly, perhaps even surprising himself with his sudden intervention in the hearing.

‘Interesting that you should ask it because the two of you were the ones who helped me realize what I’d like to do, when you shown me around Canterlot and from the edge of my eye I saw a toy shop.’ Oakleaf paused and looked at the ground with his ears shunned back, but he was smiling. ‘I’ve... I’ve never really thought about it, but I have a book filled with schematics to various little automatons and toys... It belonged to a very dear friend of mine, she was a genius when it came to brewing up such contraptions. I think the least I can do to honour her is to put the book to good use and perhaps fulfil a dream of hers.’ he explained the looked up at the balcony. ‘I... I would like to request that this book may be transported to me, I’ve enchanted it using the same technique used on my spell tome so it shouldn’t be a tiring task. Naturally I would give it up for examination as well if so you wish.’

‘From a daring survivalist who explored the depths of magic, to a humble toy maker.’ said Celestia, not even hitting a questioning mark just stating it while examining the unicorn with a smile.

‘Not much more unlikely a tale than any other, Princess.’ nodded Oakleaf.

‘Perhaps not.’ Celestia replied then looked at Luna before turning back to Oakleaf and finishing: ‘Such an ambition would be difficult for somepony with nothing, but a fine suit to show for his name. However, you’ve done something that may make the future of Equestria blossom and contributed grately to us. For this and in the hope that you may rest and serve Equestria in the way of your choosing, I offer the aid of the Royal Treasury in starting your new life, home.’

It was a rare occurance that the princess would grant royal help to specific ponies. There were times when she granted settlers land and helped them find their home in the world, but to a single pony it was a very rare occurance in deed, perhaps just acouple dozen times throughout her reign. Obvious Oakleaf either knew this or suspected it because he tried to deny this “donation”, but the princess insisted.

‘Whether it will be used or not, this book contains the work of years, perhaps decades. In our kingdom, honest work will always be rewarded and you especially deserve this, given your unique hardships.’

‘I...’ started Oakleaf. ‘I wouldn’t ask for much in this case. Just a single shop in a quiet little town somewhere, like...’ he paused and seemed to choke back a laugh. ‘Like Ponyville.’

‘Ponyville?’ asked Celestia. ‘Ponyville it is then!’

‘Oh, no really it’s not important!’ Oakleaf tried to back out for a moment, then on a whim changed his mind and simply said: ‘Thank you.’

‘About that other book and the details of your future, we’d like to speak with you in private, please find us in our office.’ finished Celestia her words to Oakleaf and raised her head. ‘Thank you all again for appearing at such an early hour. The hearing is over. May you have a wonderful day.’

With that Celestia turned around on the balcony followed by her sister, left the chamber. Gloomy Cloud remained for a few brief moments more, looking at the teal unicorn as if she’d wish to say something, but she just stayed silent and left following the princesses.

Oakleaf looked around a bit uncomfortably and noticed that a few council members are slowly climbing down towards where he was standing, no doubt to inquire on various spells of his. Probably to avoid this, he simply said “Thank you for having me!” and trotted out of the chamber before anypony could hold him off.

‘Do you think we should go after him?’ asked Clover finally raising from Cres’ side and sitting up straight.

‘I’m not sure he wants that right now. He probably really just needed you to help break the ice.’

‘I suppose he didn’t count with the elements of harmony.’ noted Clover. ‘It sounded like he was planning on making a grand argument about magic that then wasn’t needed.’

‘This all seems a bit off.’ noted Cres and stood up. ‘I somehow expected a longer hearing for one, definitely going into the details of the spells. Then again, the pegasus wouldn’t have liked the ideas being explored right in front of her.’

‘A rotten situation.’ came from Clover.

‘It is...’ the unicorn paused. ‘Then again, I suppose everything went decent enough and...’

‘Not what you expected.’ interrupted Clover.

‘No.’ Cres said simply. ‘Calling out Princess Luna like that was interesting though. For a moment I thought he’s gone bonkers. Come to think of it, he probably was, given his past.’

‘Yeah...’ Finally Clover stood up too. She took a look around the chamber where most of the council members were still discussing the hearing and other things. As chaotic the hearing seemed, the after math was calm and organized. She couldn’t quite explain the why behind it, somewhere felt that it was the Princesses soothing words at the end that lightened everypony’s emotions. Perhaps the natural way in which she acted towards the situation infected the rest of the chamber.

She stepped out to the stairs and was already on her way to the exit with Cres behind her.

‘I think I’ve just found out what didn’t feel right for you about all of this.’ noted Clover on a sudden thought. ‘You said that if he doesn’t walk out of here as a celebrated stallion, then you’ll lose faith in magic!’ she smiled.

‘Arguable, but fair point.’ nodded Cres, but for once didn’t smile back.

‘Are you alright?’ asked Clover concernedly as they opened the exit. Before Cres could reply they were interrupted by Oakleaf who was waiting on the other side.

‘I’d just like to say again that I’m terribly sorry for using you Miss Cover.’ the teal unicorn said as soon as they stepped through the door.

‘Hu-? No it’s nothing.’ replied the mare, she thought the teal stallion would be far by now.

‘I hope your curiosity was soothed at least.’ noted Oak who seemed relived from Clover’s words. ‘If you don’t mind though, may I have my hat back?’

Neither of them noticed, but the gray fedora still followed Cres and Clover, hanging over head. Clover wasn’t sure what to do, she hardly had a graps of how she even moves an object bound to her like this, not to mention how she could break the connection. Oakleaf saw this and just lifted a hoof friendlily and as Clover accepted it the hat lifelessly fell down, before getting caught mid air by the cream coloured gleam of Cres’s magic, which was soon switched to Oakleaf, who thanked the gesture with a bow of his head.

‘Well I suppose you’ll be seeing the princesses now.’ said Cres simply. ‘I would hate to keep you up so... Unless you or Clover would like to talk, I mean.’

‘I personally would just have liked to thank you for your help. I’m grateful for both your hospitality yesterday and that you were willing to help with my demonstration.’ Oak said.

‘This is your plan then? Simply move into Ponyville and start making... Toys?’ asked Clover, half expecting the unicorn to reply with “that’s just something I said to move along the end”, but the unicorn just nodded.

‘I’ve also realized that if the Princesses are willing to help me find a home, I won’t need many things that I’ve originally planned to “bring over” and perhaps they could be put to good use here.’

‘What sort of things?’ asked Cres.

‘Books mostly. I didn’t really have much else than those... A couple of memories.’ Oakleaf’s voice died down a bit, but then just looked at the two ponies and gave them a smile. ‘Thank you again.’ he simply tipped his hat then turned around and left hastily.

Cres and Clover looked at each other and just started walking towards the gates of the palace. Clover couldn’t help but feel concerned about Cres’s morose appearance, she knew though that there really isn’t anything that she should say.

As they made their way outside, she to imagine what the teal stallion could be like as a toy maker, it seemed difficult to imagine that a mage of such standing would do well with children in any way. Deep thinking and children just don’t really go that well together...

Her eyes drifted onto Cres again, the stallion looking straight ahead, lost in his thoughts. “Three years”. She didn’t know why that ran through her mind. She just suddenly was over come by the the vivid distance which those years created, but she just couldn’t explain this feeling. Or just didn’t want to?

She thought back to Oakleaf. The same amount of past years probably meant something very different for him, she wondered if the stallion felt it longer or shorter that she did. He didn’t seem to want to live in a big city and now was going to live in Ponyville. Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle. Why is she constantly thinking about her recently?

‘I’m sorry.’ said Cres suddenly. ‘I drifted off a bit.’

‘Oh?’ Clover looked at him, then realized they were already off the palace grounds.

‘I’m not sure why, but I always imagined the council a lot more grand. Just got me thinking a bit.’ the stallion explained, but Clover - for the first time in a long while - wasn’t sure what he meant. ‘Anyway, I didn’t want to mention it earlier, but I’ve reserved two places for this evening in the theater yesterday when you were talking with Oakleaf.’

‘You did? To what?’ asked Clover surprised.

‘Oh just this little thing called The Imaginarium of the Shimmering Order.’ said Cres in a neutral tone, but a smile was lurking on his muzzle. It was the play to which he took her on their first date many many years ago.

For a moment those same years rushed onto Clover, she felt so old. So many things happened, so many ponies she met. She practically watched others grow up or bloom before her eyes. Still, looking at Cres she couldn’t feel bad about it. He was there since the beginning and he too remembered. If she was old then she was old with him.

She didn’t say a word just stepped closer to the stallion and gave him a long kiss.

‘Deja vu.’ said the stallion simply once they separated. ‘Any thoughts on how we should pass the time until six?’

‘We go too rarely to the gardens.’ replied Clover after thinking for a moment.

‘To the gardens then!’ Cres declared and spun around quickly on his hind legs alone. ‘Milady?’

Clover stood next to him and they slowly made their way back to the palace, exchanging just a few words. She knew that something was a bit different - at least Cres seemed to think so - but she didn’t concern herself with it. She had everything she needed right there and knew that if one thing wouldn’t change then it was that.

The Toy Maker

It’s been a week since she had her breakthrough, since Twilight found a way to enjoy books like the North Wind series. She still felt incredibly stupid for overlooking their value, but it was a new sort of stupid, somehow she found it easy to laugh at herself and find a sort of gladness in it all.

The book club wasn’t coming along exactly as she originally planned, but it was perhaps better this way. While her original thought of sharing deep and thought provoking books didn’t come to pass, the chance to explore a whole new plane of literature and share in it with her closest friends was incredible! Of course Rainbow found a way to wiggle herself out of the whole thing. When she asked her, the pegasus didn’t directly insult her love of books like she often did before - perhaps in light of the unicorn’s recent episode - but it was pretty obvious that she was not going to sit around in the library reading, while she can sit around on clouds and snooze. Twilight didn’t give up on her blue friend yet, but she wasn’t going to force the flier into her own passion.

The breakthrough made her think though, was she always this oblivious? Was she missing out on stories like this all her life? When she looked back, she remembered her mother reading her simple little stories that she just loved when she was a small filly. None of them had any depth, yet she loved them, so she must have had this appreciation one day. In fact just two days ago, her eyes were caught by the sight of a small group of books she was keeping in a corner shelf in her room, a few books she didn’t read in a very long time. They were old copies of little romance and comedic stories written by Clover Cover, who was her favourite author when she was still young.

Strange how memories can just blend in with the backdrop of a pony’s past. She never really forgot about how she used to write a lot of letters to the author, nor the kind words and interesting thoughts and opinions the older mare shared with her through their exchanges, there was simply a gap in her past. Somehow nothing past a mark somewhere four years ago seemed too “real”. There wasn’t any big event that would have happened then, it was simply that beyond that everything was so far away that she could hardly remember.

Why she changed though, was a different matter. She soon realized that she simply started spending more and more time learning magic and had little for anything else. For a single moment, when this realization came to her, Twilight felt terrible; she thought that she made a mistake by concentrating on studies and forsaking the rest of her for it. Only then, a quote ran through her mind, a quote from the most unlikely of places, Clover Cover’s book “Out of the World” and it went like this:

“If not for my mistakes and they were many, if not for what I thought to be terrible luck, if not for the misdirection I faced and all the confusion that fell on me, if not for all of these things together, I would never had a chance to learn to love you.” The line was spoken by a stallion essentially damned himself and a mare to be trapped in a strange mystical place from where there can never be coming back, but the important part, the part that now touched Twilight was that without making mistakes, none of the good that came of it could have happened. In fact neither of the protagonists would have been the same without all the events that came of it. Did it matter what could have happened? No. Should Twilight feel devastated for missing out on one portion of life for the sake of another? Definitely not! Who knows where she’d be now? Maybe she’d be still in Canterlot, maybe she’d have great friends, but it would mean different friends, a different life and she had to admit she was happy the way she was, even with the occasional hardships.

‘Twilight?’ came Spike’s drowsy voice from upstairs, interrupting Twilight’s line of thought.

‘Yes Spike?’ she asked and put down an old copy of “Starmane and Cindercork”. Looking at the stairs, Twilight saw her assistant standing on the top of them, looking down and holding a small scroll.

‘Mail.’ sighed the dragon tiredly, who wasn’t too happy about having to stop his nap, even if the Princess herself wanted to send a letter.

‘The Princess?’ Twilight’s voice mirrored a blend of surprise and confusion. She lifted the scroll gently from the dragon’s hand and flew it to herself. ‘Thank you Spike.’ she nodded towards the dragon, her eyes already locked on the curious seal of the paper, which carried the royal image of Sun and Moon while Celestia always sealed her messages to Twilight with a single Sun.

‘I’m gonna go back and finish my nap.’ yawned Spike and left.

Alone, Twilight looked at the letter curiously, it took her a few seconds to work out who it could possiblycome from and once opening it, the first line seemed to already confirm her suspicion.

Dear Miss Twilight Sparkle!

Please, excuse my haste. I’m writing to you today for two important reasons. First of all, I would like to thank your assistance once again. I can’t stress how much it meant to me to be welcomed like this as soon as I arrived to Equestria and though the fact that you’ve sent my book to the Princess first concerned me regarding my own future, it surprisingly gave me a chance for a normal life, which I couldn’t have imagined before.

Secondly, I will be visiting Ponyville later today, around four o’clock on important business and I was hoping I might speak with you personally on a matter or two. I would ask that if you are available at that time - and would not mind my company - please meet me at your library.

With goodwill and gratitude;
- Oakleaf ‘the Vagrant’ ~ SP

“Um... Okay?” that was all Twilight’s mind reacted on the first turn, she didn’t expect that the teal stallion would ever happen by here again and what “important business” may he have in Ponyville? And why would he want to see her again?

Since the letter he wrote a week ago, she didn’t think of the stallion, though her opinion softened. The unicorn struck her more as a very, very strange eccentric wizard, than a mad pony. The fact that the Princess would reward him has just shown that his spells were actually useful, they were all valid and probably danger free, which made her previous opinion all the less true, and meeting him again, in this new light would have been... Awkward.

In all honesty, Twilight didn’t really have anything planned for the afternoon so not leaving the library was already “the plan”. Though she knew it was early right now, before lunch time even, she checked the clock to place the arrival in her mind, noting that she has six hours to figure out what to make of the ... Or perhaps she can just pick “Starmane and Cindercork” back up and continue reading the story.

Being faced with the option of solving a mystery or enjoying herself, for once she decided to take the more comfortable path and flew the letter off to a desk as a reminder, before returning to the love struck ravings of a fictional farm filly.

‘The door isn’t even closed now.’ sighed Spike after four knocks on the library’s door. While the dragon walked to the door to see who it was, Twilight took a glimpse at the clock which now signaled two minutes before five.

‘I know who it is.’ she said simply and placed a bookmark in chapter two of “The Impossible Adventures of Doctor Whooves 1 - Skin of Metal, Mind of Death”. ‘I’ll let him in, Spike.’

The dragon shrugged and went back to his chair and continued sketching.

‘Good afternoon Mr Oakleaf.’ she greeted the hat wearing teal unicorn in a welcoming tone. Still, the only thing she felt was awkwardness, having no clue on what he may want from her.

‘Same to you Miss Sparkle.’ replied the stallion who seemed to be in an exuberant mood. ‘I hope I’m not interrupting anything important!’

‘Oh, no. I’ve just been reading. Um, come in?’

‘Thank you.’ The stallion stepped in and flew his hat, to the clothes hanger. Looking over her shoulder, the mare noticed that Spike disappeared, probably upstairs. ‘What sort of book would it be, that you read?’

‘Oh, just... A bit of Science Fiction.’ Twilight was a little thrown off by the unexpected small talk. From the sound of the letter she expected something very important to be shared, something that cannot wait, but it seemed that the teal pony had time and she didn’t want to be rude.

‘Science Fiction?’ asked the stallion uncertainly wrinkling his eyebrows. ‘Oh like Master Spring’s works! The Mysterious Valley? Twenty Leagues Above the Highest Mountain? Or, well I suppose the tales of the Airship Semirossia and her Captain Nemine, as well as the other adventurers may not be that popular these days.’

‘You’ve read those stories?’ asked Twilight surprised. It wasn’t that the stories wouldn’t have been well known, in fact they were legendary in their own right, but few ponies actually took their time to actually read them and because of this, they were rarely spoken of.

‘Oh, I’ve read a lot of stories.’ smiled Oakleaf. ‘A lot of old stories. Of course.’ he corrected quickly.

Twilight glanced towards her book, she was looking forward to see how it goes and this pointless chat didn’t help her achieve that. Yet,she owed Oaklead as much as to give him an ear, and really: It was rare to meet someone who read such old books.

‘You were a fan of the Semirossia books?’ she asked putting her mind at ease and allowing the pointless but potentially enjoyable conversation take lead.

‘Sort of. Actually I had a... friend, who loved them.’ the stallion explained. ‘Would always go on and on about how the machines work, extending the descriptions here and there to make me see.’

‘Her people must have been pretty good with engineering if she understood all that.’ Twilight noted, the mention of a good friend sparking a memory from when she last met the stallion.

‘Huh?’ Oakleaf seemed surprised for a moment then hastily explained: ‘Oh, no, no. She was... Special. She learned most of it, um... From my books. Had an amazing talent for it though.’

‘Oh I see.’ nodded the mare. ‘She must have been very smart.’

‘Yes...’ smiled Oakleaf, but then his expression turned more dejected. ‘I think I mentioned her before, I’m not sure if you could remember.’

‘At the party.’ nodded Twilight.

‘Yes. Nice of you to remember. Anyway, that’s one of the things I wanted to ask you, if you don’t mind. You seemed... in sorrow. I’m afraid that I may have been the source of that.’

“No.” is what ran through the mare’s mind. “No.” is what she should have said, or perhaps just what she wanted to say? When a week ago she read the goodbye letter this stallion sent her, she thought - she hoped - that this whole ordeal is finished. Now however, he slowly dragged her guilt back. As much as Twilight wanted to dismiss the topic, she couldn’t - she wouldn’t - lie to him, not again.

‘Partially...’ she admitted, her eyes drifting from Oakleaf to a neighbouring bookshelf. ‘But it was my own stupidity mostly. I was just... I was just terrible for taking your book so harshly and for not telling you that I’d send it to the Princess.’

‘You truly think, that you’ve acted terribly by doing so?’

‘Didn’t I? I lied to you!’ Twilight preserved her statement, her voice in a mix of regret and slight anger. What does the stallion want? Pretend that what she did was good? She made a mistake, she knew she did and she dealt with it! There is no need to try and deny facts.

‘Yes, you did lie. When I found out where my book went, I felt terrible too.’ acknowledged the teal unicorn. ‘As I thought over it however, I realized that you were right to do so. I tried to express this in my letter to you, but I knew that could never be enough.’

‘Why do you insist on making me feel better?’ Twilight looked into the stallion’s mournful eyes. ‘Why can’t you admit that I’ve done wrong and let me deal with it?’ She didn’t mean to be rude, but just couldn’t hold this back anymore. Even the Princess didn’t sweep away the unicorn’s failures, why must this stranger be so obstinate in this?

‘I’m sorry. I’ve unwillingly wronged so many in my life, I’m perhaps a bit too zealous to correct my mistakes.’ said Oakleaf, his eyes dropping down from Twilight’s. ‘I’ve placed you in an impossible position, caused you to justly believe me mad and showing you a book that should never be handled by the mentally ill. What else could you do, but lie? How could you tell I would accept the truth? No Miss Sparkle. The words may have left your mouth, but I was the creator of the lie.’

The stallion looked back into Twilight’s eyes as he finished and for a few moments neither of them spoke. The mare was somewhat surprised to recognize her own reasoning, coming from this mostly stranger unicorn, but though it seemed he wishes to take the guilt upon himself, Twilight didn’t feel she could blame him, perhaps because her friends made her get over it, or simply because he asked for it. Yet her frustration went off somewhere. She didn’t know where that could be, but as the stallion recollected, and justified her cause - which Twilight herself thought to be wrong - she didn’t feel guilt anymore.

Perhaps her facial expressions gave her new found ease of mind away, because the earlier smile returned to Oakleaf’s face and he said:

‘The other things I’ve written have just became more true while I was in Canterlot. I was amazed to learn who you Miss Sparkle truly are. While the continuing cycles of day and night reassured me long ago that Nightmare Moon was dealt with, I couldn’t have imagined that it could have been done by anypony else but Celestia. Knowing that my own saviour is the one who indeed saved Equestria, on multiple occasion as the Princess was proud to recollect to me, was amazing. I’m glad to see that my interference didn’t upset you too gravely.’

‘I don’t really want to be treated differently because of this.’ Twilight noted, but she blushed with a little, secret pride.

‘The other reason why I came to you,’ continued Oakleaf. ‘is a proposal of sorts. I won’t go into too many details, unless you’re interested, but due to your doings the Princess awarded me a great sum of coins in exchange for my spell book which she may use for the good of Equestria. While this feels more like a donation than an actual reward, she allowed me to start a normal life, as I’ve already written and the one thing I had in mind, would become a lot easier if I could employ a talented magician to aid me.’ he explained then added: ‘Only temporarily! I’ve already began searching for a permanent aid, but I thought perhaps I may request your help in beginning my new life.’

‘What exactly is this “new life”?’ the mare asked curiously.

‘It probably sounds silly, but... I’ve mentioned my friend just earlier? Who was quite talented with various mechanical sciences? She left me a collection of different designs, automatons, toys mostly. Small devices of illusion and the sort. I have little doubt that if she ever lived here, she would have opened a shop to sell these and well... I think this is the best thing I can do for her. I’ve also got a few little spells that would both make it easier to make them and would allow me to put my own little twist on them.’

‘Toys?’ asked Twilight indifferently, but as soon as she said the word, image of the insanely complex spell she saw in the spell tome crossed her mind and a dumbfounded expression snuck onto her face.

‘I know.’ The stallion held back a laugh. ‘The Princesses asked that of me first as well. “What would a mage want, making toys?”, but honestly: I’ve made more toys and illusions in my life than I did academic magic. I never really liked to think of myself as a mage.’

‘But all those spells! How could you make so many in so little time, without devoting all your time to them? How could you call this library nothing but a hobby? Few mages ever done this! And now you’d abandon magic completely.’

‘Few mages were allowed to see the ways of many civilizations and few were driven by the want to impress them.’ Oakleaf smiled. ‘I’m also far older than what I apparently look, if you are so shocked by what I’ve done. You didn’t oppose me abandon magic when I mentioned it after we met. I suppose that’s simply a sign of your well placed doubt.’

‘Still...’ Twilight tried to protest.

‘Look, I won’t keep researching magic. I don’t think I could. It’s just...’ Oakleaf stopped and gestured around, wearing a weaker, but persistent smile. ‘I want this. Simplicity. Peace. You have no idea ho-’ the stallion blinked at the lavender mare then laughed. ‘Right, Element of Harmony, vanquisher of dreaded Discord. I’m not sure my point of “I want a simple life like yours.” still works, but I hope you understand what I’m getting at.’

Having had idols like Starswirl The Bearded, Twilight couldn’t imagine what could drive an experienced magician to abandon his trade completely, not to mention his talent being the creation of magic! She knew she had no right to impose anything on him though.

‘I guess I can... See that.’ she noted. ‘It’s just hard to imagine it. Leaving magic behind to make toys.’

‘Well, maybe not so much “behind”. I’ve got a few interesting ideas. In fact, my offer still stands from earlier, and the Princess agreed when I mentioned it to her. Any spell of mine, that she deems “ready” is at your disposal Miss Twilight - as well as everypony else’s - but I still owe you a great deal and perhaps will always, so though I’ll never wish to make a living off magic, I’ll be always happy to assist, granted that the Element of Magic could possibly needs such a service.’

‘Well, uh. Thank you!’ Twilight nodded unsurely. She didn’t feel she would deserve such support from somepony she admittedly lied to. As he came to think of it more deeply, a thought crossed her mind however and she could not believe how she didn’t think of this before.

This unicorn was alone. He came here alone, yet spoke of an old friend and many acquaintances. He looked content and happy - maybe even felt like that - but he came here without his friends. Whatever happened to them, perhaps the reason he’s so kind and open towards her is simply that, he needs somepony, anypony to relate to.

At first a cold ran over Twilight’s back as the thought came to her, being an involuntary anchor to anypony didn’t feel right. Still, she knew what it was to be alone, even if she didn’t realize it at the time. She knew how much a friendly face can mean. It was time for her to be that face and forget about the awkwardness of their past.

‘About the toys, I think I can probably help you out.’ she noted a bit quietly, but somehow with each word, her shoulders felt lighter and her voice became bolder. ‘Yes, actually, I think it would be interesting to see how automatons work!’

‘Magnificent!’ Oakleaf said in a cheerful tone. ‘To be honest, I wouldn’t have been offended if you don’t really want to deal with me again, but thank you, this makes everything so much easier.’

‘Ah nonono.’ Twilight shook her head with a slightly strained but honest smile. ‘As overly cheerful Ponyville may seem at times...’ she started, then paused for a moment. ‘It may be a good thing. We always welcome a friendly face.’

‘Thank you Miss Sparkle.’ Oakleaf said and bowed his head. ‘If you don’t mind, I’ve got a few things to take care of, look up something, a bit of walking about, trying to find certain ponies, that sort of thing. I’ll leave you to your-’

‘I think I can help you find those ponies if you want.’ Twilight interrupted on a sudden initiative. ‘Perhaps you could explain more about what you’ll need of me while we go?’

‘That would be fantastic, though I wanted to give you a little time to read this.’ Oakleaf noted and flew a very large, sharply folded piece of paper to the mare from under his suit. ‘I didn’t want to give it to you earlier because I thought it would be in the wrong light, because of the favor I just asked.’

‘What is this?’ Twilight asked, taking over- and opening the paper. ‘A list?’

Her eyes quickly ran through the paper’s contents, they were books. In fact they could have filled a smaller library! There was everything there from lexicons dating back a hundred years to ancient editions of classics. She even noticed a few rarities among them.

‘I made an offering of my old books, towards the Royal Library. They were treated with the same spell as my spell tome, so it was a simple deed for the princess to bring them to the Palace. Eventually it was suggested that the ones that weren’t considered “lost” before, could be sent to you, if you’d be interested. You do run a library after all.’

‘But this is incredible! Some of these are ancient! How could you have had them?’

‘Honestly? I have no idea.’ shrugged Oakleaf, smiling happily at the mare’s satisfaction.

‘I’ll have to go through this.’ Twilight said. ‘After I helped you find those “certain ponies” I mean.’ she said and placed the paper on a desk.

‘Well, in that case, I could use some directions to...’ Oakleaf flew another, much smaller paper out of his suit and looked at it. ‘A fellow called “Filthy” I mean “Filthy Rich”. He’s supposed to have an empty lot for sale. Strange name to call a foal.’ he noted.

‘I think I know where he’ll be, buuut I don’t think you’ll want to use his first name. At all.’ Twilight replied chuckling slightly at the end.

‘Oh I can see why.’ Oakleaf smiled and drew back his hat from the clothes hanger. ‘If you’d lead the way then Miss Sparkle?’

‘Of course.’ Twilight smiled at the stallion and walked out of the Library.

As unusual the past week was for her, she didn’t care anymore. She had the opportunity to do what her friends did to her, help somepony become a part of Ponyville, the greatest community she ever knew and that was something to be proud of.

‘One more thing,’ Oakleaf said as they started walking. ‘not important just out of curiosity: Do you happen to know anything about a mare called “Trixie” or where she may be found?’

‘Trixie? I didn’t hear of her since she was in Ponyville once.’ Twilight replied in surprise. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘Ah nothing. Just something someone said and caught my ear. Nevermind that.’

‘Hm.’ Twilight thought for a moment. ‘Whatever you say...’

End of Book I

Book Club, Part 1

There are many wonderful and magical things in the world. Ask just about anypony in Equestria and they will agree on this. There are majestic creations of nature like the mountains, forests and various animals; great achievements of talented ponies which can be shown by simply pointing at the weather factories of Cloudsdale or the Palace of Canterlot. Still, the most wonderful thing in the world is friendship.

Or at least that's what Twilight Sparkle thought. Or perhaps still does? She did write countless letters to her mentor - Princess Celestia - about its beauty and she does love her friends dearly, but...

Twilight Sparkle was laying on her bed, tiredly. The sun was going to come up soon, or at least her clock suggested as much. She followed a group of Pegasi with her eyes through the window, who were cleaning up the last of the storm that went on for most of the night. The unicorn didn't sleep a minute this past night.

The storm itself wasn't what kept her up though, it was rather-

'What was that?!' she whispered to herself, pulling her head down as she heard a loud crashing noise from downstairs. 'Who could it be at this hour?'

She silently stepped off of her bed and started listening. Something definitely was moving down there. Owloysius - who was resting on the end of her bed - looked at Twilight questioningly, she just replied by shaking her head, then started sneaking towards the stairs. She saw the stairs themselves cast an unsteady shadow on the wall, somepony was walking up and down with a candle, if only she could see who...

'Spike?!' she blurted in surprise once she sneaked low enough to find the intruder. The librarian unintentionally startled her young, dragon assistant who spun around as fast as dragonly possible. Before he could answer, Twilight used her horn to turn on the lights in the Library, revealing a small pile of books at the bottom of a book case. She noted it quickly then continued: 'What are you doing up so early?'

'I could ask the same.' replied the baggy eyed Spike, panting a bit, then he released a big yawn. Owloysius also flew down from upstairs and sat between two books on a shelf, looking curiously at the baby dragon. 'I got woken up by the storm a while ago. I thought, maybe I'll do some of the morning checklist a bit early and then I'll get to sleep-in later.' he explained and took another yawn. 'Storm got you too, huh?' the dragon asked of the mare, then looked at the curious owl with a raised eyebrow. That just 'whoo'-ed and flew over to a table next to Twilight.

'Actually, no. I was up all night. Thinking.' replied Twilight and started putting the books back on the shelf with her magic.

Spike didn't want to look lazy so hurried over to the books and started sorting through them. After he moved a few of them back on their place he grabbed a seemingly random book and said:

'Ah there it was! "Crystal Mane and the Riddles of the Hornless Unicorn - Adventures and Brain Teasers for the Clever-minded" by Swift Quill. He did that other book you read last week, right? "The Mare or the Ursa?" I think… Twilight?'

Twilight laid down on the floor and just hanged her head.

'Are you alright Twilight?' Spike walked over to the pony and looked her in the eye. Twilight didn't return his gaze for a moment but then looked up and said:

'Do you think it's wrong that I want my friends to be different?' she asked with a troubled look.

'Uh. Different, how exactly?' asked the dragon back after a little pause. Spike wasn't quite sure what to think of this sudden question.

'It's just...' started Twilight then paused and looked away again. 'That book.' she took the book out of Spike's hand with magic and opened it. 'I love this book, I love all the riddles and brain teasers Swift Quill puts in his work but... There isn't anypony who I can share it with.'

'Oooooooh?' said Spike, starting as if he understood but ending in a questioning tone.

'Look, it's just that I love my friends but it always feels so... Empty when I finish a book. I would so love to go to the Spa with Rarity and talk over what she thinks of the subliminal messages in "The Guardian of Canterlot" or "The Crimson Mare of Lost Pegasus Mountain". But I can't. None of my friends read.'

'But they do! I'm here just as much as you, if not more, and I see when Rarity and Fluttershy drop by every so often to take out a book.'

'Oh really, what was the last book Rarity took out, Spike?' asked Twilight.

'Uhm... I'm not sure, I wasn't paying too much attention to… the book.' admitted Spike, blushing a little.

'Well, it was a fashion gallery from a few decades back.' said Twilight. 'I know because she asked me if we have one like that, as she has an order from a retro-loving client. And Fluttershy...' Twilight sighed and stood up, continuing to put the books to their place. 'She's Fluttershy! I once tried to talk with her but she just said "I don't know Twilight, I didn't really like that book, but I'm not sure I have any right to judge the talents of the writer like that." Not to mention that she would probably be shattered by the more mature stories. And even when it would come to riddles like the ones in this book, I have little hopes. When we played chess the other week, it was obvious that she's seeing two steps ahead of me near the end, but she was holding back because she didn't want to make me feel bad by beating me. Argh!' she grunted.

'What about the others though?' asked Spike while taking care of the ladder which also tripped over when the books fell.

'Seriously? Only time Applejack asked for a real book was when Macintosh wasn't well and she wanted to give him something to do while resting. Rainbow Dash wouldn't read a book, only if maybe it "starred" a dragon-taming Pegasus who does base jumping into active volcanoes as a hobby.' Twilight used the word "starred" disgustedly on books. For her, characters were but tools to convey a message. 'And as for Pinkie Pie.' A sudden thought broke her concentration and she paused again. This caused three books she was holding mid-air, to fall on Spike.

'Watch it!'

'Sorry Spike.' she apologized and quickly moved the rest of the books up to their place. 'I just thought that I don't really even know how Pinkie feels about books.'

'Neeh... Don't put everything on that pony Twilight. She's great and all but can you imagine her with a book that doesn't happen to be booby-trapped? '

'Ah, you're right Spike...' Twilight nodded sadly. 'You know, the most well-read pony I know here would be Cheerilee but she's always busy planning programs for the foals. She rarely has time to read books that she's interested in. And I didn't even mention you suddenly getting very sleepy every time I try to talk to you about a book.' she finished, to which Spike rubbed the back of his head and looked away.

'Well there are always your friends back in Canterlot.' said the dragon.

'Spike...' Twilight raised her eyebrows at her assistant.

'Oh, right. You were pretty anti-social weren't you?' Spike laughed uncomfortably when he realized what he just said. Then once more with less spirit, as he realized his correction's similarity.

'Thanks a lot Spike.' said Twilight a bit hurt, but she knew her assistant was right. She's really wasted a lot of potential by sticking to herself as much as she did when she lived there.

'Still, there was a book club back there, right? Maybe you could join it as a long range member and ah...' Spike suddenly realized that if Twilight will start to send letters to a book club regularly, that will only mean more work for him. But he went too far, he can't just say: 'Never mind, bad idea.'

Somehow the phrase managed to slip out of his mouth. 'Darn it!' he thought then tried to correct himself:

'I mean, it wouldn't be the same but... Hey! Maybe you can start a book club right here! Think about it! Ponies may not read much now but if you'll start a book club, they might end up loving it and you'll have somepony to discuss this stuff with!'

'That...' started Twilight and put on her thinking look. '...is actually a great idea Spike! I mean, I would have to take time to organize meeting schedules…' The lavender unicorn started trotting up and down the room with an excited look on her face. '…and mark down "Book of the Week" worthy candidates as well but I could do that!'

'You're not actually thinking of starting it right now though, right?' asked Spike who meanwhile made his way back to his bed, knowing he didn't have near enough energy to finish the rest of the morning checklist.

'Why wouldn't I? What do you mean? Should I wait for spring so…' she paused as Spike pointed out the window. 'Oh, tonight.'

All of a sudden as she thought about it, the lack of sleep crashed down on her and she realized she's been very woozy for a while now.

'You're right I guess, thank you Spike. I think we could postpone the morning checklist to say, noon maybe?' she asked as she covered Spike with his blanket, but her assistant seemed to take it as a rhetorical question.

While the baby dragon quickly fell asleep, Twilight quietly walked to the half-done checklist and scribbled "organize book club" at the end, then made her way up the stairs to her bed.

She soon fell asleep, thinking of the various and numerous books she could start off on.

The day went by mostly as usual, Twilight ran through the first few chapters of Swift Quill's book. On a sudden thought, she visited Fluttershy and shared a cup of tea with her. But as soon as she noticed on the clock that school time is almost over, she excused herself and rushed off to find Cheerilee. Twilight believed, that being a teacher, she might have useful tips for opening a book club. Who knows, maybe they could even choose a few 'fun' and less mature books - Perhaps adventure stories? - for the foals to read so she needs to organize less events and has more time. That way she could join the book club!

Sadly, Cheerilee couldn't give anything more than major pointers that Twilight already thought of and she would have hated to go into such an important project without a proper guide. When she returned home, she found out that Spike and Owloysius searched through the library for a guide book that could help her, but didn't find anything. Though Spike noted that "It can't be that complicated." Twilight felt that the best course of action would be to take a trip to Canterlot - where such a club already existed - and search for guidelines there.

'I'm sorry Spike, but you'll just have to stay here.' she said while placing two wrapped up sandwiches in her saddlebag, which rested on a table. 'I probably won't be back until tomorrow afternoon and somepony might need the library.'

'But Owloysius could do that too.' said Spike pointing the riddle book in his hand at the owl. Twilight gently lifted the book out of his hand and placed it in her saddlebag as well.

'Thanks for getting that for me.' she noted while looking into the open pack, writing a mental stock of everything she'll need. 'Owloysius won't do, because to be honest, some ponies still have trouble communicating with him. And look on the bright side- Check.' she interrupted herself as she moved a small pouch of bits into her bag. 'So look on the bright side Spike: At least you'll get to sleep in, as much as you like. Until somepony comes knocking of course.' Finished, she put the saddlebag on.

'Fiiiine.' though the thought of snoozing late into the morning again sounded charming, Spike didn't much like the idea of being alone in the library. When Twilight was around, at least he could talk with someone. When she wasn't, he just couldn't wait for a good excuse to go off somewhere or do something interesting.

'Thanks for understanding Spike.' she said with a smile and rubbed the baby dragon with her nose.

'Alright, quit it!' shooed her off Spike, failing to hide a blush.

'Take care Spike! Make sure he doesn't wreck the place, Owloysius!' she said and walked out of the library.

Twilight knew she could make the trip a lot simpler if – for example – she would order a carriage, but she had a new-found lightness in her hearth and thought she should take the few mile trot to Canterlot herself. She also knew that narrowing down her favourite books (which books listed in numbers that could easily fill all of any other pony's bookshelves) to just one book per we- Week? Why she completely forgot how busy everypony is in Ponyville! Not everypony has the luxury to sit down and read an entire book in just a week's time. No a week won't do, maybe two weeks? Yes that sounds better, everypony should be able to go through a book in that time, right? Ah, but this is just the kind of thing she needs from Canterlot.

She trotted on, making book selections in her head, while admiring the orange leaves of fall. Somewhere around half way to Canterlot a thought crossed her mind: She never realized how much she changed for her friends. And all for the better! The years of study blurred together in her mind while the time she spent in Ponyville - while not short - was made of sparkling, unique moments. There were sad times, definitely; but the good parts, the time she spent with her friends having fun, has overpowered any dark shadows.

It was strange to her really. She would always think so clear of so many things while reading her books. She would think of Equestria's history, unveiling the chains of events that formed it into the land it is now. She would think about the great unicorns of old who first harnessed magic while reading about spells and the studies of mages. She would think about pretty much everything while reading, but she needed a long lone walk to think about herself for once.

'Why didn't I join the book club in Canterlot while I lived there?' she wondered. The obvious answer was that she didn't quite feel "Home" among other ponies back then and now she felt ashamed at her younger self, for not giving them a chance.

She continued her trot in this manner as the Sun slowly made its way to the far west. By the time she made it to the base of the road, going up to the mountain on which Canterlot rested, it barely closed 30 degrees from the ground. Seeing how the library will probably be closing by the time she gets there, she decided she'd better just go have dinner and then go to sleep. To sleep? But where?

She couldn't believe her stupidity, she knew she should have gathered what she'll need before departure on a scroll instead of just doing it off the top of her head! It's much easier to gather her thoughts that way. Now with her haste and mind slower from having slept only through the morning she completely forgot to make reservations! No doubt with winter so close tourism is sky high in Canterlot, some looking to sell the last of their fall produce, some preparing for the various, winter sport competitions that are commonly held near to the capital... The hotels will simply be full! She could always go to the castle but she can't simply walk in there and say "Excuse me Princess Celestia, but would you mind if I'd just crash in your Palace?" No! These things have an order to them! She should have sent a letter ahead.

While she climbed the road, mentally punishing herself for this stupid mistake, her barrel rumbled as her stomach voiced it's solid opinion of how the chain of importance should go in the current situation. She shook her head and quickly went through a list of places she could get a quick bite. Almost instantly a small, secluded, not very luxurious but very comfortable tavern came to her mind, not far from an entrance to the old Canterlot dungeon. It's name was simply "The Feed Bag" as its history dated back to ancient times - perhaps to the very first days of Canterlot - when ponies who broke the law or simply hoarded up huge debts were punished by forced labour. They often had a bag put on their muzzle so they won't voice their anger. This was called a "feed bag" because they only removed it after the ponies were returned to the dungeon so they had to have their lunch (mostly apple-mush) poured into this bag.

Originally Twilight was introduced to this surprisingly rustic little tavern by Spike and despite its strange feel, it grew on her. Mostly because it was rarely visited by any of the other students, who of course would always try to get on the good side of Celestia's little prodigy. Here she could easily find a corner table to retreat to and read a book or think in quietly while having her meal. Come to think of it, she never asked, but given that it is a 'tavern' they might actually have a room for the night.

As she finished the line of thought her stomach unleashed another - perhaps approving - growl and she placed more haste in her steps, quickly recollecting her memories on how to get to The Feed Bag.

Once she arrived at the tavern, Twilight was pleasantly surprised as the brown coated owner of the tavern greeted her fondly; though he didn't see her in a long time and they never really talked to each other. Apart from the orders that is. Her joy grew even more when he informed her that they indeed have a room ready and waiting. As it turned out Spike realized the mistake in the planning before Twilight and have sent a quick letter to Umber Mug (the proud owner of this modest tavern), somehow knowing where she will go when in doubt, even before she did. She felt especially glad that Spike didn't write to the Princess as she would have hated to show even so minor mistakes as not writing ahead to her dear mentor. After a delicious dinner, she retreated to her room. She found it a bit too rustic by Canterlot standards, given its simplicity and cranking floor, but she didn't mind it too much and went to sleep.

First thing in the morning, she felt a bit sore from the unfamiliar bed, but in the spirit of a good guest she didn't mention it. As she left after a quick breakfast, yesterday's light-heartedness took hold of her once more. She couldn't stop thinking about how much she opened up for the world recently and it's all thanks to her friends. Maybe she could repay them in kind? Yes that would be perfect! After all, winter is coming, so Applejack will have a little less work without so many weeds and what-nots around. She would have time to give to some quality books. Twilight will definitely have to remember to invite Applejack to the club once it's started.

She made her way through the familiar streets to the Canterlot Royal Library which, also happened to give home to The Swift Quill/Deep-Word Royal Book Association of Canterlot, the most renowned, almost academic level 'book club' in all of Equestria, though not a single one of its members would be caught dead calling it a 'club' or even shortening its name to R.B.A.C. as most ponies call it.

Normally, it was very difficult to get in touch with the ponies running it, but one of its leading figures Clover Cover (Sweet Clover by birth) a famous mainly romance book writer, shared mutual respect with Twilight from the years she lived in Canterlot. Clover Cover's first best seller publication, a humorously written gardening guide titled 'Gardening for Unicorns, or Why It's BETTER to Use Your Hooves Sometimes' has actually been inspired when she was watching a much younger Twilight practice a plant growing spell in the Royal Garden as part of her studies. Some thought of the book as a sarcastic critique on all of Unicorn kind as Clover Cover herself was an Earth Pony but few things could be further from the truth. She actually had a deep fascination with Unicorn magic, despite being unable to cast spells of her own.

'Twilight Sparkle!' Clover Cover greeted the unicorn, who was waiting for her in the lobby of the Library. 'I am glad to see such a young literary enthusiast again!' She smiled at the younger pony from between a few stylishly hanging, greying locks of her mane.'

'Good Morning Miss Cover.' replied Twilight gently bowing her head.

'Oh don't be silly, just call me Clover.' the older mare replied. 'I was just preparing to drink a cup of tea before one of our group meetings! Would you care to join? You can tell me why you asked for me somewhat more comfortably then.'

Twilight accepted after a moment's consideration. She was originally planning to just ask the mare for any tips and hopefully a book explaining the steps of such a noble organization she was planning to set up in Ponyville. However, maybe she can ask to join this meeting and gain first hoof experience on how these meetings go.

She followed Clover Cover up a few flights of stairs from the lobby and down a corridor. She knew the corridor and recognized the paintings on the wall. They were all great writers, bibliographers and researchers of their own time, she could name each of them off the top of her head and - with the exception of Deep-Word who only wrote one, but over four dozen volumes long book titled simply "Equestria" - she could name at least five books that she read of each author. She felt warmth inside as many meaningful quotes rushed into her mind. Soon she'll be able to share all thisof these wonderful thoughts and epimyths with plenty of her Ponyville neighbours.

'So, what was it that you needed dear?' asked the writer once she led the unicorn into her office.

'Well, I recently decided that, as I am currently the librarian in Ponyville and as there is no such group there yet, I should open a book club.' explained Twilight.

'Oh, Ponyville was it?' asked the mare, but unlike most of Canterlot's wealthier, renown citizens, her voice rang with genuine interest instead of snobbish disappointment. 'Yes, I remember now.' she continued while putting a kettle on a small stove in the corner of her office.

'I was hoping you might have a few guidelines for me.' Twilight finished.

'My guidelines?' asked the mare with a bit of surprise. 'I see what you mean dear, but I think you're asking the wrong pony.' she said with a friendly smile. 'In technicality I'm not actually running any such groups personally. I'm just here to enjoy the company of other book lovers and share my thoughts. I make a few book choices but that is it.'

'Well yes...' started Twilight then stopped. This wasn't exactly what she expected. 'But you've been with the Association for at least five years. I'm sure you have some guidelines you could share with me.'

Clover Cover hummed thoughtfully while carefully taking of the top of the kettle to see how the water's brewing. She browsed through a few flavours and with half attention asked the unicorn if she would like morning glory flavour, who just nodded silently. 'I'm not quite sure.' she said finally, dropping the tea in the kettle and putting the top back. 'With something like this it is all about the group itself, instead of just the initial planning. You should ask your candidates what they want. But as I said, we're just about to hold a meeting, I'm not sure if you've read this week's book as it's quite new, but I'm sure nopony would mind if you just took a seat and listened to how such a meeting goes. It's about "The Black Stallion" if you're curious.'

'I don't think I had a chance to read that yet.' noted Twilight. 'But I would be very happy if I could join your group for today.'

'It is settled then!' smiled the older mare.

A few moments later the kettle started whistling and she quickly took out two teacups while Twilight (somewhat crossing the line between small town and city courtesy) used her magic to carefully pour the contents of the hot kettle into them.

'Thank you dear.' nodded the mare and they both drank. 'Say, we've got about an hour, would you mind telling me what settling down in Ponyville was like? I'm gathering material for a new story where a high town filly settles into a little country town and meets the stallion of her dreams! I know it sounds very "Starmane and Cidercork" at first, but believe me it will have a little 'out there' theme to it. A bit of comedy for what it's worth. I'm sure my readers will love it.'

With that, the conversation changed tracks, but Twilight didn't mind. She talked a bit about her friends, the various little town myths that have Ponyville enthralled and explained the unique competitive but friendly atmosphere, telling about the fall of leaves festival and other similar events. Clover Cover shown special interest in Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy for some reason but Twilight just kept talking about her life and thinking about the book club until the mare noted that it was time to go.

There is not much to tell about the meeting that Twilight attended. Given that she only knew the book that gave the theme to the meeting by name, she didn't understand most of the things the members brought up. But she still loved it! All the debate on the context, the small but important plot elements they've pointed out to each other… It was exactly what she hoped to recreate back home!

She took a few minor notes in her head about the meeting, but other than wanting a book club even more, she didn't get much out of the whole meeting. She decided the best thing she could do after bidding farewell to Clover, was to go down to the Royal Library's Book and Souvenir shop and look for a guide that can give her more instruction on the actual 'how' of things.

A while later she emerged from said shop with ten new books, a very fine feather quill along with an exquisite inkwell with a large, elegant 'S' written on it and a very small, almost brochure like book. Much to her sadness the last one was the largest guide she could find in the theme of establishing a book club. As much as she didn't want to accept, apparently Spike was right about the whole thing, it didn't seem all that complicated. But she literally walked the extra mile and now she knows everything necessary.

'And that never hurts!' she thought as she trotted out of the Library and made her way towards the city gates. Once there, she sat down at a Café and ordered two sandwiches.

One of them she packed for the route back home, and the other she ate while looking through the ten little treasures she's found in the store. 'Naturally', the first book she bought was "The Black Stallion" but the other nine were also great books she either never had a chance to get her hooves on or have been recently published by some of her favourite authors. As she enjoyed her new life in Ponyville, she had to admit that personally getting new books around there was difficult. Above that, since a nasty incident when her package was left on her porch in a storm - wetting and damaging the books she ordered - she was no longer a fan of delivery services.

Once finished with her meal she pondered for a moment if maybe she should stay for just a bit longer, after all she should visit her dear mentor given how rarely she visits Canterlot now days... But no, it would be rude to go to the palace and taking the Princess' time from those who waited days or even weeks for a hearing. Even for a pony of Twilight's standing this was not common place. She should send word first and even wait a day to keep things proper, and as she knew her assistant, Spike was getting more and more anxious being alone in the Library all day. And there's the club too. Maybe she should write a letter to the Princess once she's home and tell her about her plans for the book club!

She left behind the magnificent gates of Canterlot thinking about how she shall write the letter and continued down the familiar road to Ponyville. She ran through the forewords of her new books while going, creating a little order in which she should read them when she'll have time. Somewhat less distracted by her own flooding thoughts, she continued solving a few of the riddles in Swift Quill's book, which she've neglected so far.

Book II/Author's Note

Due to the very title of the story, you may have guessed that this indeed was but the first, and probably shortest Book of the Chronicles of Equestria Series. The reason why it is broken into books is partially that the main focus of the story shifts from books vary, as well as they become slightly more serious as time goes on.

For now, Twilight's part is about to end, but if you wish to read more of Oakleaf, Clover Cover, Crescent Glare and a few new ponies from the fandom. You are welcome to read: Chronicles of Equestria II: The Magician, the Toy Maker and the Past

I hope you enjoyed the story so far and that you will return in the next book.