Chapters Even though the printing room had been cleared many hours ago, a single light remained on in the back of the room, and the sound of a quill scratching across paper and book pages being turned could be heard. Under the light sat a lavender unicorn, his mane slightly darker with a few white streaks in it. His horn lit up with a blue magic aura as he levitated several items in the air, looking back and forth from one to another.
This statement to himself was the only thing said in the room for a long while as he continued looking over the papers. The only thing that eventually drew him away from the words on the pages was the sound of a door clicking open as a maroon Pegasus walked in, looking curiously in the direction of the light, then sighing and shaking his head as he saw the unicorn and the papers floating about.
“Art… should have guessed. You know I’m not paying you overtime for this.”
The chief editor’s words brought a light laugh from the unicorn. “I know. I clocked out when everypony left earlier.” he stopped behind Art as he looked over the papers the unicorn was studying. “Aren’t those… Ryder’s newest sections? We are supposed to be printing those tomorrow you know.”
Three separate documents dropped in front of the Pegasus.
“These are three older sections done a few years ago. You will find that the highlighted sections prove that all the facts Ryder has found are just fiction. In fact I referenced the books that he probably pulled most of them from in a side note,” Art said, continuing to look over more pages.
The editor tilted his head and gve him an annoyed look. “You know this means I’m gonna have to fill the front page with something new right… And unless you have something for that-”
Two other papers slipped out from under the ones Art had passed to him.
“Ryder wasn’t completely wrong in this research though. I did find enough to make up for the parts that were incorrect, and still give you a front page,” the unicorn said.
Art shrugged and threw a bag over his back. “Sorry chief, but I can’t let us publish something that isn’t true. That’s the reason I’m here. If the crew has a problem with it then they can talk to your reporters about getting their stories right the first time.”
He walked away from the editor, with a pleased look spreading across his face. He knew he would hear about it in the morning but for now he was just glad to be using his talent the right way. He gave a brief glance back at the cutie mark on his flank – a piece of parchment and a quill. He didn‘t quite remember exactly how he came about getting his mark but he did remember the first time he realized what it meant his special talent was. He had received a report assignment for school on anything he chose; it had started out at first as a basic star gazer’s guide, but he had gotten distracted by writing out a whole history on the stars and how they too played a part in the way Equestria was maintained. From there, he began to try to find new way to write the paper over and over again. Before he knew it, he had set down a 300 page book on the teacher’s desk with a big smile. He hadn’t seen anypony else’s reports until later; theirs were all just a simple two or three pages. It was then that he knew his talent was dealing with anything that involved documents, books, or anything written. Naturally, this later led him to become one of the head transcripts at the newspaper facility in Manehatten.
Art closed the door to his home yawning loudly after throwing his bags to the side. Indeed, he had not planned to stay that late at work, but he’d gotten caught up in the papers, and now it was far later than he had hoped, leaving him very little time to do anything besides bathing, fixing something to eat, and going to bed. However, no matter how late it would get, he wouldn’t break one last habit he always had. Even as a colt Art would make sure to open his window and look out at the moon. He eventually came to realize that it wasn’t the moon itself he was looking at, but the image dotted across the surface. When he had asked his mother about it, she explained to him the tale of the Mare in the Moon. He didn’t have the same reaction to it as most foals who were told about Nightmare Moon, instead he only wanted to know more. That was probably where his first connection to his special talent was made, for it was shortly after hearing the story that he wrote the report and found out what he could do. Nonetheless, Art once again found himself looking out at the image dotted across the surface of the lunar figure.
“What are you really?” Art asked out loud, as if truly expecting an answer from the image.
****
It took a moment for Art to realize where he was. At first, it looked like he was someplace he’d never been to. Then he saw something that he remembered seeing several times before. Though he still had never really been to this place, he knew this dream well. Even though the land was dark as night, the sky had an orange tint to it, similar to something one might see before the sun rose. Many of the trees were similar but off in the distance was one that was different. Art knew it was a weeping willow; he’d looked up what the tree in the constantly recurring dreams was called, hoping the tree had some significance, but found nothing that helped him any. As he made his way towards the tree, his ears perked up at the sound of a young foal crying, as he always did in these dreams. In every one, Art had tried countless times to identify who or what it came from. The first time, not knowing what was going on, he simply walked up to the tree. He had tried running around it, used magic to try and pull out whoever it was who was crying, and even went as far as to try and make a large circle of light around the tree to find the foal. Each time he would find nothing but a small scorch mark on the tree when he got to where he thought the foal might be. This time, Art stopped and called out.
“Are you okay?”
As he called out, he heard a difference in the crying; it slowed down a little and he saw what he thought was a figure looking up from the base of the tree. From the size of the figure Art was right in believing it to be a foal, but that was all he could make out.
“Why are you crying?”
The only answer he received was the black figure running around to the back of the tree. Art sighed lightly and began to try something new. His horn lit up and lifted himself slightly, levitating himself off the ground enough to prevent any noise as he made his way up the to the willow tree. As he got within 7 feet of the tree, he heard a sudden crackle and pop, like from a fire, and then it was gone, leaving him wondering just what was happening. As he leaned around the edge of the tree once again all he saw was a burned mark on the ground. He sighed and set his flank on the ground.
“Geez… When am I going to figure out what this means?”
He sat for a moment longer wondering if this time if something more will happen. Then he heard a tap, as if from somepony rapping on glass, glass that was not anywhere around. There was nothing for a moment, then several more came. As the tapping continued, the world around him began to fade. He woke up, the bird tapping on the glass outside his window now began chirping happily.
“You couldn’t give me another 5 minutes…” he grumbled at it.
The bird merely continued chirping.
****
Art had a few scrolls levitating in front of him as he walked down the streets of Manehatten, taking time every now and then to stop and glance over the papers to check his path. He finally had to stop as he got within a block of the news building, looking at the crowd surrounding it. He made his way toward it curiously, slowly folding the scrolls he had out back up and returned them to their place in the saddle he wore.
“What’s going on?” he asked a light pink Unicorn at the back of the crowd.
“Princess Celestia came to town today. They say some of the royal researchers had problems translating something new that they discovered; a lot of ponies are saying she brought it here to be translated by somepony.”
“Translating new scrolls…” he said to himself gleefully.
Suddenly a voice from the front of the crowd caught his attention. “ART! Get up here!”
Art knew the chief editor’s vice as soon as it hit his ears and the crowd moved aside, everypony looking at him. Instantly, he lowered his head and blushed a little with embarrassment.
“Um… Hi everypony…” he said quietly as he made his way up to the chief, who quickly pulled him inside.
“You’re late Art,” he said with a stern look, but Art knew there was no real threat behind it.
“I know, but are you really going to hold that against me after I corrected that paper last night? Something like that would have really ruined our credibility you know.” Art walked over to his office door levitating his bags up to the hook next to the door. “By the way, what’s this about some translating needing to be done? Tell me you don’t have Harper on that.”
“Back at ya Harper,” he quipped. A sharp smack to the back of the head brought his attention to the chief, who for once actually had a stern look, which bothered Art. “Ok…” he grumbled, rubbing the back of his head. “ How about you tell me what’s going on?”
The chief pointed a hoof to the door that Art was standing in front of. Art slowly followed his gaze. There, sitting in front of his desk, was the rainbow-maned Alicorn that ruled over all of Equestria and held the utmost respect from all Ponies. For a moment Art stood there, unmoving, just staring at the princess of all ponies, which for some reason drew a light smile from her.
“Greetings Art, I was told you might be able to assist me with something.”
Art tried not to grin, biting his lip to the grin from showing, and grabbed the doorknob with his magic. “E-excuse us for a moment princess…”
He softly shut the door, making sure not to offend the princess before looking over to the chief.
“That’s the Princess in there…” he whispered. This got a sarcastic nod from the chief.
“You don’t say?”
“And she’s here to have somepony translate something… And she’s in my office.”
The Chief waited patiently for him to make the connection.
“Chief did you have anything to do with this?”
For a moment the chief looked away from him and leaned against the wall. “Look, Art. Princess Celestia has actually been asking about you for a while…”
Art leaned in a little, confusion clearly on his face. “Why? I’m just a newspaper editor.”
The Chief reached back and got a few papers from a nearby desk and handed them to Art, who took them and looked them over.
“These are those ruins that they found a few weeks back, the ones where you wanted me to figure out why the Translations were so scrambled and didn’t make much sense,” Art said, looking at them.
The Chief nodded and pointed to the section Art did on it. “Yeah and do you remember what you came up with on that?”
The Chief pulled the papers away from him and looked him in the eyes. “Art, ya translated a stuff from a lost civilization. That wasn’t just some magic art that was changed into another language.”
Art shook his head, trying to throw all this into something he could actually believe. “No… that was all just a mix of Poniopilan, and Trotsylvanian words… I mean sure it’s an odd mix of languages based on their locations but that was all.”
The Chief reached over with his wing and bent one of the blinds outside of the office, looking in at the Princess. “Yah well, that’s what we thought too. Turns out Princess had that sent out to the papers as a last resort to get them translated.”
Art leaned in speaking quietly to the chief. “You mean… she was testing everypony?”
“I don’t really know, but ever since then she has been sending guards and letters once a week to try and contact you.”
Art shrugged a little, looking over at the guards still posted up at the front door of the building. “But why I haven’t seen any of them or heard from them even once?”
The chief’s ears lowered and he kicked the ground lightly. “Yeah… I may have told them I don’t know who you were or that you don’t work here…”
Art eyed him a little, not liking where this is headed. “Why did you say that? I’ve been here the whole time.”
After a while, Art silently waiting for an answer, the Chief finally looked him in the eye. “’Cause I don’t wanna risk losing you… They may want you to go back to Canterlot and work with the Ponies there. You’re one of the best editors we got here.”
Art did feel a little annoyed that the Editor was keeping him from progressing to something far greater, but inside he knew that he wasn’t really sure if he would actually want to leave the paper.
“Chief…”
For the moment Art wasn’t sure what to say, or if he should open his mouth.
“Let’s just see what the Princess needs… we’ll go from there…” he said at last.
As he turned away and started to turn the doorknob, he felt the Chief touch his shoulder.
“Art, sorry for what I did… If Celestia does ask you to go to Canterlot then you should go… Just don’t forget us here at the paper ok.”
Art rolled his eyes and looked at the chief annoyed. “I’m not going to be asked to the castle, that ain’t my kind of luck, so stop getting my hopes up.”
He left it at that and walked into the office, still surprised that it was actually Princess Celestia and not some prank from one of the other ponies.
“So… Princess, you think I can help you with something?” he asked sitting down behind his desk, trying to be courteous as possible.
“You’re the Unicorn that did the article on the scrolls I sent here a few weeks ago correct?”
Art rubbed the back of his neck seeing this going towards what the Chief was talking about.
“Well… yeah, I was just going over a few of the sections done by the reporters. I didn’t actually receive the article in person, but I took it upon myself to correct the mistakes that were made. In the end I had to redo the whole article so the Chief gave me the credit for it.”
Art didn’t want to waste her time so he just gave a nod and a quick answer. “Yes princess, that was me.”
“I see…”
She began opening a pack that was next to the chair lifting out several more pictures. “I’ve had several ponies look these over, and none of them have been able to get anything from them, however most of them see a similarity between the symbols in your past article.” She lifted out something that made Art’s eyes glaze over. It was his dream to get to see something like what she was setting on the desk in front of him. “This is one of the three books that have been found in the same place as those symbols, honestly we aren’t sure what it could contain… it could be just a harmless cookbook, but I would still like to have it translated just to be safe. Perhaps it even has a great recipe for a berry cobbler.”
“Princess… This is… may I touch it?”
The regal Alicorn nodded and laughed lightly. “Yes, it’s protected by a strong magic to keep it from ripping or just falling apart.”
As she said this, Art quickly took ahold of the book and opened it to a random page; immediately a few symbols jumped out at him and he managed to make out a few words. The look and feel of the book was more than he imagined it to be; for a moment he felt himself going back to the days when he was a colt and his mother would bring home her own old scrolls that she had dug up. She had to come up with an excuse several times to explain why the scroll was in pieces after having it only for a night, but she would never let anypony know that she had been showing the relic to Art, who would usually cause some spark of magic trying to get it and result in a rip here or there. Now he was old enough to control his magic and know how delicate the object he held was.
“My Art you seem quite interested in the book,” Celestia noted.
Art waved a hoof, still not taking his eyes off the book. “It’s just that this reminds me of my days as a colt. My mother was an archeologist, and she use to always bring something like this home to work on.”
The mentioning of his mother brought a smile to the Alicorn’s face.
“Does your mother still work in the field? Maybe she helped with uncovering this.”
Once again Art just waved to her while keeping his eyes locked on the book. Now several more words were coming together. “No, she retired when I finished school; she works in the library down town now to keep herself busy.”
She blinked a few times and returns to her normal self. “Art, this is good news, I just know it. But I have to ask. How did you manage to make out those few details in that amount of time?”
Art pulled up the papers from before and pointed to a few of them. “A symbol here and there stuck out, and I could see a few differences in the symbol here and there, I figured that must mean that one of the letters was changed to something that matched another one. That and I doubt you would believe me but a few of the symbols just seemed to jump out at me, like they seemed important…”
Celestia shook her head and gave him a gentle smile. “Nonsense Art. Many times a pony’s special talent manifests itself in odd ways. It’s these ways that helps a pony understand why they are good at what they do.”
Art blushed a little and traced his hoof on a spot on the desk next to the tome. “Yeah… I guess that does make sense. Nopony else seems to understand it when I say it’s like something highlights itself, but then again I guess I wouldn’t ether if I didn’t see it.”
Celestia pushed the book close to Art and got back to the topic they had talked about.
“Then I see I came to the right pony. It was hard to get in touch with you, but I can already see that it will be worth the wait.”
Art looked from the book to Celestia giving her a confused look. “Princess… What exactly do you want me to do anyways?”
The princess once again nodded to the book.
“Art, I want you to translate this book, and possibly the other two we have found.”
Art looked back to the door, knowing this was just what the chief was talking about.
“How long would I be away for?”
His question got a slight tilt of the head from Celestia.
“Away? What makes you think I would require you to leave?”
Art looked down to the old book sitting before him, lifting one of the pages with magic.
“Well… if I’m going to translate this… I hope I can… But if that’s what I’m supposed to do, won’t I have to go with it back to Canterlot?”
Celestia laughed lightly and closed the book, pushing it into Art’s lap.
“Art I already told you the book is protected by magic, you can’t damage it. Along with a protective magic it is also secured with a safe return magic, if I will it to return to me it will. I’m not afraid of what will happen to the book. Besides I have seen that some of the best and quickest translations have come from ponies doing work where they feel most comfortable, in their own homes.”
Art could hardly believe what he was hearing, the princess was going to allow him to take this ancient book home, and work on translating it.
“Princess… are you serious?”
She nodded and pushed it toward him again.
“Yes, there are things in that book that I believe may be of use to me in the coming month, I know this may sound like I am placing you on a time constraint, but this is just something I am asking as a personal favor.”
“I…I don’t know if I can have it done in a month… it’s a very thick book… and I still have my work here at the paper…”
Celestia closed her eyes and nodded.
“I understand, I don’t wish to push something like this on you, I apologize for making this sound important.”
Art felt the book being pulled back by Celestia and felt a lifetime of dreams and opportunities being pulled away with it.
“Wait!” he said quickly grabbing a hold of the book, hoping she wouldn’t pull it away from him. “I wouldn’t pass this up for anything, I really wanna work on this. I’m just not sure how fast I can get it translated.”
“Don’t worry about that, I don’t have to have it translated by next month. I was just saying it would help me with something I am afraid will be happening soon. If you are able to do it before than I will be eternally grateful, however I do not wish for you to overwork yourself just to please me. I’m just glad to see such a strong determination on my little pony’s face to do this.”
Art once again found himself blushing but held the book a little closer.
“It’s just… I guess this feels like something I shouldn’t pass up.”
He knew later he would realize just what he hadn’t thought about in this brief moment, but for now all he wanted to think about was actually getting to work on the book, finding out just what had been written in it. Celestia stood her wings extending outward as she rose.
“Thank you Art, I look forward to hearing what you find. If you could, I would greatly like to know what you find as you translate it.”
Art nodded as he too stood up. “Of course Princess, I’ll send you a letter when I come across anything interesting.”
Celestia bowed her head and began walking toward the door. She paused and looked over her shoulder at him.
“Also, I do want to compensate you for your troubles. I would like to pay a fair sum of bits for your help.”
Art was about to request she not do that before she spoke again.
“I won’t take no for an answer either, I am taking your time so I feel it is only right.”
Art nodded as he slid the book into his desk and walked over to the door to open it for her. “Of course, Princess. I would gladly do it without pay, but if you insist, I won’t turn it down.”
Celestia nodded and proceeded to walk out, followed by Art; the guards that had been waiting by the door joined her as they appeared.
“Oh if it’s not too personal a question, may I ask, when you got your Cutie mark?” she asked.
The question seemed a little out of the blue and made Art have to think for a moment. He couldn’t really remember when he had gotten it; he had actually started school with his mark and got a lot of resentment for it from the other foals. “that’s hard to say really princess… when I started school I already had it, My mother said she came in one day and found one of the scrolls she had brought home in pieces in my room. She said she would have been depressed by it if it wasn’t for the fact that my cutie mark had appeared.”
“You were quite young then. Quite a rare event for a foal to discover his special talent so early.”
Art laughed rubbing the back of his neck with embarrassment.
“Yeah, you’re telling me. Some ponies think it’s bad to be a blank flank throughout most of their school days, they should try starting school already having their cutie mark.”
Celestia gave another warming smile and bowed.
“Well, thank you for doing this Art, I look forward to hearing from you.”
Art returned the gesture, offering a deep bow. “I’ll do my best Princess.”
With that, the Princess walked out of the building, the guards at her side moving the crowd aside as they passed. Art was just about to quickly rush back into his office when he turned and pushed his head into the heavy chest of the chief editor.
“Oh… hey chief.”
“Well, when are you leaving?” There was a hint of disappointment in the chief’s voice as he asked the question, looking down.
“Chief, I’m not leaving, the Princess just asked me to work on something for her. It’s related to the article we did several weeks ago.”
The chief perked up a little hearing this.
“Really? It was just some personal project of the Princess’s?”
“That’s good to hear then,” said the chief. “I was afraid you wouldn’t be part of the editorial meeting, which is going to start in a moment. There’s a lot of leads on some new market failings and the usual pony idol scandals, I know I’m gonna need you there so you can start looking for what’s just gossip and what’s a real scoop.”
Art barely managed to hide his disappointment at the mention of a meeting that would take 2 to 3 hours to get wrapped up, leaving the book to sit in his desk instead of in his hooves.
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss it for the world chief…”
To most his false smile would be clear but the chief just threw a hoof around his neck and shook him.
“That’s just what I was hoping to hear," the chief said with a grin.
Canterlot was very different from Manehatten, everypony knew this, however it wasn’t until Art actually arrived at the station in Canterlot that he realized just how different it was. Manehatten was full of ponies that knew how to make it clear that you were in their way and this was something he himself had grown to know how to avoid. However here everypony knew where they were going and seemed to know where every other pony was going. No pony was getting in each other’s way and would even exchange pleasant nods or greetings, everypony seemed to be having a pleasant day. His observation was only from the moment he stepped off the train to the moment he heard a rough voice off to the side call his name.
“Sir Art. This way please.”
The words came from one of two gold armor clad guard standing just off to the side. Art’s first thought was he had immediately done something wrong, not even thinking about the fact the guard had said his name and might be there for another reason.
“B-but what did I do wrong?”
“Nothing sir, the Princess request that you have an escort to the castle when you arrive.” the second guard still hadn’t moved while the first gave his reason for being there, which brought a slight sigh of relief from Art.
“Oh, ok then, but I have to say Canterlot doesn’t seem like the place I would need an escort in.” this brought the first action from the second guard as the first turned to look at him, both of them sharing a small, and brief smile. This caused Art to wonder if he was missing something about Canterlot.
Moments later Art found himself aimlessly following the two armored unicorns while staring at all the shops, buildings, and other grand decorations around the city. While getting lost in the city’s splendor he hadn’t realized that after a moment more the two guards has stopped, and he bumped into the back of them.
“Oh, sorry guys, but why did you-” he stops himself as he sees the reason for them stopping; they were already standing at the stairs to the castle. Suddenly it came to him why Celestia had sent an escort, while he had been looking at the town and all its glory he hadn’t paid any attention to the path they had taken from the station. Celestia had sent an escort knowing that Art would get lost. Knowing this Art ducked his head down realizing why the two had shared a brief smile at the station.
He had expected them to take him to see Celestia first, but as they lead him down through the halls and opened the doors to a room he knew this wasn’t a throne room or any room that Celestia would normally visit. Inside were several ponies of all three races, some conversing over papers, others writing notes and such on chalk boards, while one group was focused on a jumble of metal and equipment.
“The engine for the ship is coming along but as I told Celestia before it will still take another week and a half to make sure it syncs up with the machine before we can even test it.” came a reply to the left of them as an older gray earth pony came up to the three. Art’s attention was then drawn over to the group that had the machine and tried to figure out what it might be used for.
“The Princess said that you would like to speak with sir Art when he arrived.” replied the guard who the turned and left, Art not noticing till the earth pony walked in front of him and drew his attention.
“Art…. Why would I want to speak to- WAIT! You’re that unicorn. The one that did all that work for the Princess, translating that old book! By Celestia I’ve been hoping to talk to you ever since Celestia took that book from us.” Art found himself stepping back, slightly worried that the earth pony hadn’t appreciated someone else working on the translation. He suddenly felt the stallion shaking his hoof enthusiastically.
“The name’s Gray Fields. I’m the head of the Research department here in Canterlot Castle. It is a pleasure to meet the pony who made all of my team look utterly useless.” the look on the stallions face said he was truly joy filled to meet him, however the words said the exact opposite.
“Umm… sorry about that?” Art replies with an unsure edge in his voice.
“No no, you don’t understand. See you made these ridiculous foals look…. Well like ridiculous foals. We had that old tomb for 3 months, and those bumbling idiots barely managed 7 pages. But you, oh you...” Fields chuckles to himself as he continues. “You had it for barely a month and managed the entire thing. I wish one of my team had half the skills you had.” Art looked around expecting to be getting cold eyes from several of the ponies in the room but all of them hadn’t even turned from their work.
“Thank you… for saying that, but I think your being a little too generous. I see a lot of things around here that I have no idea what it is, I’m just good with books and such so-” Fields cuts him off with a heavy laugh. “You think they understand half the stuff they have written on those boards? Ha! That’s a good one kid. Look I don’t think you got what I was saying earlier. I will give anything… to have you on my team.”
Art stopped dead in his tracks as the words left Field’s mouth; this was what he had feared he would hear after working on the translation. However standing in the research room and looking around at all the books and scrolls, made his next words very hard to say.
“I’m sorry, but I’m just looking to get a few answers on the book and what I translated.”
“Paint…”
“Art.” he corrected Gray Fields.
“Same difference. Art… I’ve seen the way you look around at these projects. You belong here working on them, you WANT to work on them, and I can tell.” the earth pony was trying his best to get Art to say yes.
“I’m sorry, but this… all this. I’m not quite up to all this, yes sure I want to work with these old scrolls.” he says nodding to the wall of aged scrolls. “But this stuff is way over my head; I’m just a pony that works for a newspaper.”
Gray Fields dropped his head and sighed. “Oy, your one of those ponies Hu? Never wants to try and aspire to greatness, push the limits of what he can do, maybe make a name for himself…” Fields glanced over to see if his attempts at changing his mind were working but Art’s expression hadn’t changed.
“By Celestia you’re a difficult one…”this but got a smug smile and a shoulder shrug from the velvet unicorn.
“Fine, fine… but as long as you’re here could you at least take a look at the other two books and show a few of my team how to translate it since you refuse to stay on as a member?”
Art was expecting this to be another attempt to change his mind, but ever since he had looked over the first book he had indeed looked forward to the day that he might get to see the other two and perhaps work on them. Trying to hold in his enthusiasm at seeing the other two Art nodded and provided a light hearted smile.
“I’m sure I can do that.”
Gray Fields lead him back to a group Art hadn’t noticed until then spotted the two of them first and stepped aside, allowing a clear view of the two very old tombs setting on the table before them. Fields introduced Art which drew a few smiles and nods of approval from the team, which quickly turned into eye rolls and held in laughs as Fields started in about learning a thing or two from Art and how they should all be ashamed to be put shown up by a young stallion like him.
After spending a while mocking them and glorifying Art he finally left and Art got his first glance at the second book, but was a little distracted at the previous bragging done for him by the earth pony. After looking it over for a while a few of the team left to gather a few research items and left him with two Pegasus, a mare and a Stallion.
“Look about what Gray Fields was saying earlier, I wasn’t trying to show you up or anything. In fact I got quite reckless while working on it and-” the mare raised her hoof to stop him and shook her head.
“Don’t fret over old Gray; we don’t take anything he ever says seriously. He has his own way to show he appreciates what we do, and we all know it’s just his way to motivate us. Either way we don’t hold it against you, besides your took some of the work off us so we’re pretty grateful for that.”
With that off his mind Art was able to fully get into the translation of the second book while explaining it to the others, who had returned now with several books he had asked for them to get. He soon found it was much harder to explain how he translates something to other ponies that can’t see things the way he was seeing them, but his attention was taken away from that the more he had translated. Nothing was similar to the last book; this one had a considerable use of numbers and measurements. He hadn’t realized that he had stopped talking to the team till he already had a good idea about what he was looking at.
“Um… excuse me Art… you haven’t said anything for a long while now. We have picked up a few things you have done in the translation, however I don’t think any of us are following as quick as you’re going now.” the mare finally spoke up and broke his attention.
“Oh… yah sorry, it’s just… I’m afraid we may be wasting our time now that I’m seeing what this may be.”
This drew a lot of surprised looks from the team as they crowded in about him. “What are you seeing?” the mare asks as she moved up next to him.
“Well see all these right here.” he says pointing to a few parts on the page. “There are Numbers, along with measurements. Now the way these are set up on the page it means one of three things. One: this is an atlas style book that is meant to be used with a map somewhere. Two: this is a building layout, because all the measurements could be used to show room lengths and height. Thr-” he is cut off by Gray Fields coming into the room along with the two Guards he had been accompanied by to the castle.
“Marker, I’m sure you have shared your knowledge-”
“Art.” he corrected once again.
“Yah yah, anyways, I hope you have showed these overpaid interns enough to improve their skills and make them look like they deserve half of what I pay them, because it seems I have tied you up for too long and the Princess is looking to speak with you.”
Art nodded and turns to the team he had been working with. “thank you for working with me on this, hope I helped a little with showing everypony the translations.” all the team nodded and exchanged thanks as Art turned to join the guards that were already leaving till Fields called out to him one last time.
“Sketch-”
“ART!” again he corrected the earth pony.
“Fine, whatever you want to be called. Either way, if you change your mind I can always fire one of their halfwits and give you their job.” Fields offers and gives him a wink.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
While trying not to appear annoyed that the stallion still hadn’t got his name right Art turns and rejoins the guards already on their way to Celestia’s quarters.
While most ponies would be utterly fascinated by the décor in the castle or the sheer beauty of the castle itself, Art had found himself thinking about the parts of the second book he had worked on with the research team. He didn’t have much time to dwell on it before the guards stopped and stood beside two doors, he didn’t need to ask to know this was probably where Princess Celestia was at the moment. He leisurely opens the doors and walks in, not thinking to knock till he had already entered and cursing himself for forgetting.
“Ah Art! There you are. I was wondering if Gray Fields had locked you away in a room.” Celestia’s voice came from off to the side.
Art had only glanced around the room for a moment till Celestia had called out to him but already he could see this was probably Celestia’s study room.
“oh, no. he just had me preoccupied for a moment, he had ask if I would show a few of his team how I translated most of the book using the second and third book” (note: I need to go back and add parts about him looking over the third book too.)
“And how did that go?” Celestia ask as she started putting away the scrolls she had out moments ago.
“Well… Gray Fields is… and interesting pony.” this brought a quiet laugh from Celestia then she nodded for him to continue. “But the team he manages is full of ponies that catch onto things quickly, I think most of them had been on the right track they just didn’t have the right languages applied to their work because the two used are odd when coupled together. However I do feel like I could have provided a little more information had I not started realizing what the two other books were, I… forgot to tell them what I was doing as I got deeper into it.”
Celestia tilted her head, giving Art a curious look.
“You already know what the other two are?”
“Yes Princess…. I believe I do. May I borrow something to write on?”
Celestia nods and grabs a blank scroll and a quill, levitating them over to him as he joined her at the desk.
“See what gave me a few ideas as to what the books are was the abundance of numbers, in the previous one there were few numbers and most were in written form. However they were written quite close to one another with few words separating them. Like so.” he notions to the scroll where he had written a few numbers and placed what he remembered between them. “At first I recognized them as a form of measurement but I wasn’t sure which ones yet, so numbers with measurements would make you think what when written like that?”
“Perhaps distance to a destination? Directions to something? Key to a map?” Celestia voiced her guesses.
“That was my first thoughts. Then I found a book showing forms of measurements similar to the ones used in the one we were translation. Turns out it wasn’t a distance measurement, but a component measurement.”
“Then it’s an alchemist book?”
“Close.” Art says as he starts writing the numbers down in a straight line with measurements such as cup, tablespoon, and ounce. “But what about when I reorganize the numbers like so?”
Celestia stepped back for a moment making sure she was seeing what she believed she was seeing. “A recipe?”
“Remember when you commented on the book possibly being a cook book… well.” he nods to the paper where he had written down a few things, all of which were cooking ingredients. “Turns out there is a nifty section on the berry cobbler you mentioned.”
The two of them share a laugh at the chances that Celestia’s previous guess had been correct but on the wrong book.
“Well at least one of them was of help to you Princess; sorry the other two weren’t something more.” Says Art, as he walks back around to the front of the desk.
“Nonsense Art, the first book was plenty good enough, besides I think recipes from an ancient civilization could be quite a treat. If the team has learned enough from you then when they translate the two perhaps you could stop by one day and try one of the dishes.”
Art tried not to look too embarrassed at the princess’s personal invitation to dinner with her sometime and rubs the back of his neck.
“That could defiantly be an interesting treat.” he did have to admit that it would be interesting to try something that had been cooked up by a race long lost to Equestria. “What there anything else you wanted to talk to me about Princess?” he ask hoping not to come off as eager to leave.
“Yes actually, you are on your way to Ponyville after this correct?” she waited for a brief nod from Art then continued. “I know the other day I didn’t go over things with you about staying there till after the celebration. To be honest I had to make plans for you first.”
Art quickly shakes his head. “You didn’t have to do that Princess; I have no problem finding a place there.”
“I may not have needed to but there was a pony I thought you should meet with while there, I think you two will get along quite well while you are there. I’ve ask that he stay with you and help you find things while there, but you will be staying at another pony’s house for the night.”
He bites his lip as he thinks about what he may be getting into now, he had thought this was just him meeting Celestia after the celebration when she had more time and could tell him what was going on, but it was clear now that Celestia had other things planned before this.
“I didn’t think Ponyville was that difficult a place to get around in?”
“Oh it’s not, I was hoping this could be a bit of a vacation for you since you spent your actually vacation working on the translation.”
Suddenly it was starting to make a little sense now, Celestia was paying him back for the work he had done for her and this was just part of it. “Thank you for setting that up for me Princess, but how will I know who the pony is?”
Celestia smiled and looked away like she knew something. “Don’t worry about that, you will know him when you see him.” she giggled lightly, which worried Art more. “He is quite a noticeable pony. But I assure you, you will be in good hooves-”
Celestia and Art bother are distracted from their conversation as a parchment of paper appears in a green flash near Celestia. She levitates it over to the desk and turns to Art.
“Excuse me for a moment Art, I should see to this.”
He nodded and stepped back, allowing Celestia her room as she read the letter. He couldn’t help but noticing her look of delight as she started reading it, not one of a princess reading a letter of good news, more like one he had seen on his mother’s face when she would read over one of his reports for school. It was something the unicorn had never expected to see from a regal Alicorn, at least knowing she wasn’t a mother herself. He continued watching till she sighed and shook her head, a small smile forming as she read. Then just as quickly as it had come, it looked like something suddenly hit her. She looked up as her eyes grew wide, quickly whipping around and pulling several books from a shelf behind her and replacing them till she seemed to find what she was looking for. Its dark blue cover was covered with only and image of a white crescent moon, Art however was unable to see what was inside it aside from the papers she pulled out and what looked like possibly a picture, which was left inside.
As the princess was setting out the papers she went to get another book which gave Art the chance to sneak a look and realize that the papers were his translations note he had sent her. Celestia had only stayed turned for a moment then brought another book over to the desk, of which Art hadn’t been able to see the name or cover. She seemed in a hurry as she seemed to skim over parts of the book and flip thought most of it. Finally stopping on some page and looking quite close at it.
“Of course… this is the final piece…”
Finally Art’s curiosity got the better of him. “I’m sorry princess… but may I ask what this is all about?”
Celestia turns her gaze to him looking as if she had just remembered he was there. “Oh, Art. I apologize, that was one of my students. My personal student to be honest; Twilight Sparkle. She has just informed me of something that I needed for the festival. I’ll just take a moment to reply to this and I can get right back to what we were discussing.”
Art nodded and stepped back allowing Celestia to continue what she had started on, watching as the motherly smile came back to her face as she wrote. He could only wonder who this Twilight Sparkle was that would leave Celestia so cheerful and proud.
Finally Celestia finished as the letter rolled itself up then vanished in a magical flash, she then returned to him. “Now, as I was saying before, Case is one of the best Ponies I can leave you with, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if he already knows you’re on your way.”
“Ah… wouldn’t you have already told him I was coming?”
Celestia laughed a little and shook her head. “No, I never have to tell Case anything. Once you get to know him you will understand.”
Art tried to smile and not look like this still worried him. “Well, I’ll only be there for a few days so I doubt I’ll really get to know him but I’m sure he can’t be too bad if you speak so highly of him.”
“If you don’t have any questions then you can head back to the train station to make your way to Ponyville.”
“Well actually…. You do seem to be talking like I’m going to be there for more than a few days. Am I missing something?”
She takes a deep breath before answering him. “I know I have been quiet on everything that I know is going on, and promising answers once the festival is over but there are some things even I do not quite know. When you have been around for as long as I have you just get these feeling… I just feel like you will find something that will keep you there for a little longer than you expect, and not in a bad way.” She adds the last part with a smile.
At first he didn’t like what this might mean but then he remembered something Celestia had told him, that everypony’s special talent manifest itself in a different way. He could only wonder if maybe as an Alicorn that Celestia may be in tune with fate and unconsciously know of things to come. However he quickly dismissed this thought with a shake of the head.
“Well… I can’t argue that.”
The two shared a laugh for another moment then Celestia walked with him to the front of the castle, before he left Celestia sent a pair of guards with him again, knowing he would require help getting back to the station.
Art sulked back in his seat as he thought about needing the guards to find his way back to the train, and still had gotten lost when he looked away from them for one moment. This had resulted in the train being held up for a few more moments to wait on him. Now the train was making its way into the station at Ponyville and Art retrieved his bags from under the seats, joining the other ponies as they get ready to get off the train.
As he stepped off he could already see the difference in his hometown and this place. There was a smell that he could only imagine existed in a quiet, rural town like this. He could already see a few buildings and realized how different it was from Manehatten, there was a lot of space between them similar to what would have been the smaller homes outside his hometown. However his time glancing over the part of the town he could see was cut short when he noticed a tan earth pony with a black mane walking in circle around him, his fedora tilted down just over his eyes slightly. He turned to walk away from the pony but he quickly stepped in front of Art.
“Your Art, you work for the daily haystack, a newspaper in Manehatten. Special talent is dealing with writings and books, attended little bits school for ponies, and graduated with high recommendations to go into the research field but stayed in your hometown and took the newspaper job instead, you prefer a bit of spiced hay with your lunch and in the afternoons you always read one chapter of a random book in your house.”
Art’s brow furrowed when the stallion started talking about more private information. “Ok… so who the hay are you… and how do you know something like that…”
Just as quickly as the scene had change to a dark mood it was changed when the stallion threw a hoof around Art’s neck. “Relax Art; it’s my job to know this stuff. I’m a detective… of sorts.” Even as the earth pony said this it still didn’t ease his tension any.
“Name’s Case, Celestia said you needed somepony to show you around Ponyville. Sorry if the personal info shocked you a little.” He then turned around and showed off his cutie mark, a magnifying glass. “My special talent is finding out anything and everything. Don’t ask how though.” He says the last part with a wink.
“Ok. That’s fine and all...” Art pulls away from him slightly. “You mind giving me a little personal space for the moment?” he asks with a light smile, trying not to come off wrong.
Case smiles and nods as he removes his arm and steps back. “Sorry about that, you will get used to it after a bit, everypony here in Ponyville are quite friendly so you may get that often.”
Suddenly just as quickly as he had turned friendly he grabs Art and pulls him flat against the wall and joining him in the same way.
“Wha-what are you-“
“Shhh…”
Thought Art couldn’t tell why Case had hid him so quickly but he followed the pony’s gaze and saw a pink pony rush by, stopping on a dime and looking around. She looked around for a moment as if looking for something, her fluffy mane bouncing with each movement. Finally she shrugged and zipped off as fast as she had been running before. At that Case lets him off the wall.
“Sorry about that, but trust me, if you want your personal space we’ll meet that pony later. Best once you get more comfortable about here.”
Art leans around the corner looking to see if he could spot the pink mare. “I was kind of expecting this to be a vacation… but I can see this is going to be much more than that. Who was she anyways?”
“That was Pinkie, she’s…. a bit eccentric. Especially around anypony new in town… in fact I think that’s why she’s in such a hurry.”
He thought on what Case said for a moment. “So how often does Ponyville new ponies? It sounds like it must be a big thing if she’s that into it.”
This got a laugh out of Case as he went over the bags setting next to Art and picked up a one. “No, we actually get new ponies quite often. That’s just the way Pinkie is… just wait. You will see.”
He cracked a halfhearted smile and lifted his other bag himself. “Oh… great… looking forward to it…”
“well come on, you can do that later if you think you’re up to it, for now we have a lot more to see, I’ll show you the place you will be staying for the next few days.” Case throws the pack over his back and leads Art away from the station.
Case had pointed out a few select places they passed and was in the middle of explaining when the market opens when Art noticed they were now making their way towards what looked like a work shop.
“And here we have “Tool’s Shed” all the repair work around Ponyville gets brought here, and this is the place you can bunk up at while you’re here.”
This was not what he had expected from the Princess when she implied that she was setting him up for a vacation. He tried to hide his disappointment with a light smile. “So… I take it all the rooms at the inn were full?”
Case punched his shoulder playfully and laughed. “Heck no. there’s always a few rooms open there, but I couldn’t let a guest of the princess pay to stay here for a few days. Now, come on in and you can meet the guys.”
As Case pushed the front door open he missed the worried look from Art.
“Meet the…. Guys?”
Sure enough inside was the typical work shop, various tools lie about on tables, heavy work machines set greased up and ready to use, while a few other things set to the side waiting for their turn to be repaired or tinkered with. However nothing there looked like a “living” environment.
“Hey! Tool! Get out here!” Case yelled out.
The two of them sat for a while, Art looking around expecting somepony to walk into view at any moment, or for somepony to speak up from the back of the shop. After another minute and no reply Case sighed and turned to Art.
“You’re gonna wanna duck…”
“What do you mean du-" before he could finish Case kicks one of the nearby carts and causes it to slide to the middle of the shop. Suddenly something is triggered and a ball of fire goes flying in Art’s direction, barely missing him before he manages to duck down. The ball of fire slams into the wall behind them and leaves a scorch mark and smoke rising up.
“What the hay was that-" again he doesn’t manage to finish when something under him rises up and lifts him with it. After the fireball he expects the worse.
“Alright! Another one down! What the…” the voice came from under Art where the floor had lifted up.
“Case! What have I told you about setting off the defenses? These are meant for the dark herd when they infiltrate the compound!”
Case rolls his eyes and nods. “Yeah sure. Art, this is Tool. Tool, Art… he’s the pony that’s on top of your secret door.”
From under the piece of floor that had lifted up a blue Pegasus looks up, his wildly untamed mane a vibrant red. “Is that so…”
The pony slipped back under the tile and let it shut, while Art moved off the top of it to let him out till the same pony’s voice came from behind him.
“Well he has a heartbeat…” he turns around and the exact same Pegasus stands behind him examining Art as he starts to walk around the unicorn. “I’m not feeling any corruption around him, and he isn’t mechanical… he’s a unicorn so he will be beneficial to the offensive squad, and can still act as a defensive unit too. He’s a little thin, a light weight like you a take it.” The Pegasus says looking to Case.
Art was now doing the same but with a questioning look; this pony was looking him over like he had just joined the army or something. He stepped up between the two of them and bumped Tool back.
“Ok, that’s enough of that; he’s the pony Celestia ask you to provide a room for while he stays here.” He turns briefly to Art and whispers “he’s always like this; you will get used to it.”
He looks over to Tool and the two stare one another down for a moment, Tool’s light red eyes locking onto Art’s green eyes. A light prick at his flank makes him jump and turn to see what bit him, much to his surprise it’s the same Pegasus who was in front of him just seconds ago. He quickly looks back to where Tool had been but sees he isn’t there but still behind him with the pin he had stuck Art with. He wasn’t able to keep his mouth from dropping as he looked back to Case who just shrugged.
“Like I said, you will get used to it.”
“His reactions are good enough… fine, he can join; but I want to see a lot better performance from him in the field.” Tool then turns around and walks over to the area of the wall that had been scorched and looks it over for a moment before turning and giving it a light buck. The burnt wallpaper peels off in a perfect square leaving only the bare wall behind it till Tool pulls a sheet of replacement wallpaper up and covers it.
Art noticed aside from his unnatural habits, his cutie mark was a hammer and nail, which partially explained how he was able to remove the wallpaper like it was nothing but still left him wondering how he just happen to have a spare piece in hooves reach.
“So… I’m not going to be staying in this part of the shop right?” Art ask hoping not to offend ether of them when he looked at Case, however his answer came from the opposite direction.
“You shouldn’t even be in here; you have yet to prove yourself. Spark will be testing you till you prove your worth.” Tool answered as he smoothed over the last of the paper onto the wall.
“Spark?”
“Oh, Spark is here too? Good that’s one less pony I have to track down. Hay Spark! Where are you?” Case yelled out, looking around for another pony apparently.
“Hi Case!” came a call from above them all.
Art looked up at what appeared to be a boat, but with what appeared to be half way finished wings extending from the side. From one of those wings a yellow pony stuck his head out, his tongue hanging out to one side. His orange mane looked like he had recently stuck his hoof in an electrical outlet.
“Come on down Spark, new guy is here.” Case calls up to the new pony.
“Awesome! I’ll be right down!” Spark stands up and jumps on the wing, there’s a loud crack and the wing snaps turning into a slide that he skids down and jumps off the edge. He lands on a table that had a bucket of water sitting on the edge, but the legs of the table break and send both of them falling to the ground, the water splashing on him and the floor under him. Both Case and Art wince as the yellow earth pony tries to stand up but slips in the water and falls again.
“Real graceful landing this time Spark.” Case comments with a light hearted chuckle.
“Yeah… sorry about the prototype Tool.” Spark apologizes as he rubs his neck, a little embarrassed. “well at least this time there wasn-” before Spark could finish there is another snap above them and the wing he had broken snapped loose from the piece that had been holding it. It falls away from the four ponies but lands on another table of assorted parts and tools which go flying into the air. Art watches as the only thing that lands near Spark is a live battery, the terminals making contact with the water and sending a spark or electricity into the water and through Spark.
Art jumps to help him till Case grabs his tail and pulls him back.
“You may want to stand back…”
Before Art can look back over to the earth pony a bolt of lightning zips by in front of his face. The bolt then bounces off several walls almost hitting each pony in the room if they hadn’t ducked. One last ricochet off a nearby tool box causes the bolt to come flying straight at Art.
As he watches the bolt headed toward him, his eyes widen as his ears droop, his only thought was: why did I come here? He just knew these were going to be his last thoughts, then….
“Hi you’re the new pony that the princess asks to stay in Tool’s house right? Your name was Art right? I think she said it was Art, that’s a cool name. Can you draw and stuff or do you just like looking at art, or maybe you don’t have any interest in art but instead you’re just named Art because it’s a really good name. So why did the princess have you come here anyways? Are you here with that other pony that pinkie pie is throwing a party for or are you here on your own, Case wouldn’t tell us a lot about you except that we could find out when you go there but you’re here now so we can ask you stuff and not have to wonder anymore. Oh maybe you want to know more about us instead cause I know you haven’t met us before an-“
Case’s hoof claps over Spark’s mouth and muffles his words that had all suddenly started flowing nonstop and turned into one long word.
“Sorry… this is Spark… he’s very hyper…”
Despite Case keeping his hoof over the yellow pony’s mouth he continued to talk, all the while a small spark jumping between his mane and tail.
“I see…”
Case turns to Tool nodding from him to come over and help with Spark, who was still rambling on despite him mouth being covered.
“Tool, I’ll take Art here to see his room instead of Spark, you’re gonna have to entertain Spark till this clears up.”
Tool walks over to the two of them and pulls Case’s mouth away from Spark’s.
“of course there’s always that really big apple farm on the edge of town but I’m sure you would have to work on the farm if you stayed there and you don’t look like the farm work kind of pony, not that you look like you can’t work or anything I just-” Case places his hoof back over Spark’s mouth.
“He’s fine. The new pony can deal with Spark.”
Case’s only reply is to push Spark toward Tool and remove him hoof.
“Because I help Tool out around the work shop since I stay here from time to time but I’m sure you can be a big help here too especially being a unicorn and all, so you can use magic. How much magic do you know anyways can you do magic like make fire and stuff or just pick up thi-” finally Tool places his hoof over Spark’s mouth and sighs
“Fine… I will take care of this…” he pulls Spark away through another door and removes his hoof while he does.
“It would be cool to be a unicorn for a day just so I could use magic and see how it work-” Tool pushes him through the door and sighs again. “I’m gonna need a thicker bat this time…”
Once the door shuts and Spark’s voice fades Art turns to Case with a confused look.
“Does that… always happen?”
“Art my friend… I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. “You’ll get used to it. Now, come on. I’ll show you to the part of the shop that’s livable.”
As Case started walking to another part of the shop Art caught up and tried to slow him a little by asking a question.
“Can you please tell me why you keep talking like I’m going to be here for more than two days? I’m happy that you are already treating me like one of your friends and everything, but I’m only staying here till after the Summer Sun Festival.”
“look Art, I have a special talent in finding out information, that’s how I know all that stuff on you before we met.” He stops for one moment and looks around as if another pony was going to appear yet again, then begins walking again. “I know the reason you’re here. The REAL reason you’re here, and I know a little bit more than you do. You’re here to talk with the Princess after the festival, about something you worked on for her…”
Art stepped in front of him and stopped him with an outstretched hoof.
“How do you know about that?”
Case pushes his hoof down slowly and nods.
“Don’t worry about it Art, I’m not the kind of pony to look into somepony’s secrets. Most of the time I only use my talent when on a job, like I said; I’m a detective, I do my job but I don’t abuse it.”
Though this wasn’t the answer he was looking for Art has his suspicions that this was as good an answer as he would get. He was beginning to see the kind of Pony that Case was, so far he had made his attempts at making him feel welcomed, so he could at least go along with this for the moment.
“Ok, but eventually you will have to tell me how you found out about some of that stuff.”
Case just laughed and continued walking again.
“Maybe, but first let’s see how long you decide to stay here, you didn’t seem to think you’ll be staying anyways.”
Case showed him the spare room which Art was expecting to look like the rest of the shop had, however what they walked into was a well built, decently furnished, and fairly large.
“Wow… I never expected something this… normal, especially in a workshop.”
“Tool may be a little unorthodox but he can build anything, well after he builds it a little…. Extreme the first time, then he can build some pretty nice things.”
Art couldn’t deny Case’s words as he looked around the room; it was almost like it was a completely different building not even remotely close to a workshop. The two of them took a few moments to situate a few things for Art then Case decided it was time to get back to showing him a few places around town.
Case had shown Art around most of the town, and it was already getting late. Art was expecting to head back to Tool’s workshop but Case had started in the opposite direction, headed to the outskirts of Ponyville.
“Now, one last pony for you to meet, he’s one of our little group even if he acts like he isn’t. Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if you had heard of him before, he’s another pony from another town as well as a pretty popular Pony.”
So far based on what Art had seen of the other friends, maybe a pony from another own would be more normal or at least to him anyways. Besides that the fact that this guy didn’t act like one of them was another promising aspect of a normal pony finally. From what Art could tell they were headed towards a gathering spot or something because several mares were crowded together.
“Twister. Isn’t this, what caused the problem you needed my help with before?”
Case’s words brought a lot of questions to Art’s mind but none more than when a young white stallion stepped out from the crowd of mares, tucking his wings back to his side and shaking his golden mane. This pony was a shining example of the model ponies in magazines and pictures, his figure was slim but was still toned enough that he didn’t look like a stick, his tornado cutie mark looked out of place on the flawless looking body of the Pegasus but it gave Art a reason to believe that he was ether fast or had some kind of show off skills.
“Case… good to see you still watching my back, but your killing my fun. These mares aren’t gonna cause me any trouble. Are you girls?” he asks as he gives a glance to one of the mares who swoon at his gaze.
“I’ll keep that in mind, you just keep in mind my fee for repeat cases…”
Case’s threat seemed to linger on the Pegasus for a while before he finally stepped away from the herd and walked over to the two of them. “Thank you ladies for the kind words, but my friend and I have some business to discuss.”
The mares give him a saddened look but almost like he was some pony of pop, he gave a small smirk to them and they all giggled and waved to him. The pony then turned back to Case with an annoyed look. “What did I ever do to deserve the punishment of catching your interest?”
Case gives the Pegasus a light hearted smile and throws a hoof around his shoulder. “Twister… your just and interesting pony. I like interesting Ponies.”
“And is this another “interesting pony” who has caught your eye, or is this another one of your nutcase friends?” Twister asks as he turns his attention to Art, Case doing the same as if just realizing he was still there.
“This. Is your new best friend.”
“So another nutcase friend…”Twister’s ears flatten as he says this.
Finally Art decides to speak up for himself. “Actually… I’m just in town for a few days; I’ll be leaving after the celebration.” Twister’s ears perk up as he says this.
“Yeah, I said the same thing when I came here… where you from anyways?”
His first words caught most of Art’s attention but he would ask more about that later, for now he went ahead and answered his question.
“Manehatten, I’m just here to meet with Princess Celestia and talk about-” before he could finish Twister interrupted him.
“FINALLY! A pony that I can relate to. Do you know how many ponies here act just like this guy? Almost every one of them.”
“Good to see you two are gonna get along; I need to go take care of some stuff so I need to leave Art here with you till later.”
The two of them look at one another for a moment, Art couldn’t help but wonder how a pony like this was in Ponyville, he belonged in a place like Los Pegasus. Twister also was wondering just what had happened to bring this unicorn to Ponyville and to Case at that. However the two of them did know one thing, they were both the most normal of all the ponies Case had introduced them to.
“Yeah get, I’ll show old… Art was it? I’ll show him around here, besides who knows where he will end up if you keep showing him around.” he turns to Art and nudges his side. “I’ll show you all the right places.”
That seemed to be all that Case needed to hear as he turned and waved to the two of them, leaving Art with the pony he had just met seconds ago.
“Well since you’re not from here and you aren’t already hanging on my back or haven’t almost killed me with a-”
“Fireball…” Art finished his sentence.
“Tool?”
“Tool.” both of them crack up laughing and Twister hits his side playfully. “You know, I think your one of the few “friends” Case has introduced that I think I can get along with.”
As much as Art hated to admit it, for now it seemed that Twister was probably the only normal pony in the whole town, but he still didn’t know anything about him. The one thing that interested him the most was Twister’s cutie mark, he hadn’t seen anything like it or how it would relate to someone of his build.
“Ah… I have to ask, just out of curiosity. Your cutie mark, it’s a tornado.”
Art’s question brought a smirk to Twister’s face.
“You wanna see it…”
Before Art could manage a reply Twister’s wings flashed out and he came off the ground a few feet, and then winked at Art. “You’re gonna wanna brace yourself.” he gave one strong downward thrust of his wings and the air around them seemed to explode in a fury of wind, Art was defiantly having to brace himself to keep from being blown off. A second heavy downward thrust and Art saw just why Twister’s mark was a tornado. Just as he was being forced back, he felt a changed and began sliding forward a little, quickly bracing himself to keep from moving more. Through the strong wind he begins to see something start spiraling up from the ground, something that made his eyes grow wide. A small twister was beginning to form at the center of the wind, beginning to spiral upwards at an alarming rate. Then as quickly as Twister had started it he flicked his wings in the other direction and the wind came to an abrupt stop, the small twisted slowly fading from view.
“Nice Hu?” Twister asks as he floated back to the ground. “I have the strongest wing power of any pony around, enough to generate a tornado, or twister, of my own. I’ve found a way to use that and my athletic form to make myself-” Art barely notices Twister move from in front of him to his left in a split second. “Move super-fast, but I have to stay in contact with the ground or I lose control. That means I’m not the fastest flier… but I’m the quickest pony on the ground you will ever meet.” he strikes a cocky pose and smirks. “Also the mares dig the moves.”
Art was still quite speechless for a while, but eventually managed to recover and fix his mane which had been blown backwards from the wind. “So Twister isn’t just your name…” was all he managed.
“Actually it was just a name, some kind of luck that mom would name me something that would happen to be my special talent.” Twister replies as he tucks his wings back to his side. “So with that answered I gotta ask, what’s got you here in this little town? You don’t look like one other ponies that Case would normally pick up around here.”
Art thought about whether or not to explain what he was actually there for or tell him the same story he had told everypony else.
“A few days ago I did some translation work for the Princess, but I didn’t really understand what it was I translated. I’m here to speak with the Princess and have her explain what it was that I translated.” Art’s explanation got a confused look from Twister.
“Wait, you’re gonna speak to the Princess about some books you translated that you don’t understand? How is that even possible, aren’t you suppose to know what you translate?”
The Unicorn rubs his neck embarrassed; he had thought about it that way several times, what kind of translator doesn’t understand what he just wrote down. “well… it’s not that I don’t know what it says, it’s just that some of it doesn’t make sense some of the stuff it talks about seems like riddles or fairytales. I know it’s not my place as just some random pony to question the Princess about things like this but it raised my interest so I asked. The Princess told me she would explain everything in full detail after the festival tomorrow.”
Twister hadn’t changed his look as he listened to Art, making him wonder if he had maybe said a little bit too much about something the Princess might not want getting out.
“Eh, whatever.” the young Pegasus says with a shrug of the shoulder and starts walking towards the town. “What say we get the real tour of Ponyville started? Cherry Bits is having her own special party tonight before the festival starts tomorrow morning, I’ll show you a few of the normal ponies around here.”
So far Twister had proven to be the sanest of all the ponies Case had shown him Art figured his best chances at having a normal vacation here would be to stick with him for the time. He didn’t have any problem with Case and his friends, but if this was supposed to be a vacation from the princess he wanted it to be as calm as possible, something he didn’t see happening in a place where he had to watch his step for fear of being burned alive from a random ball of fire. The two of them made their way back into town exchanging small about one another.
Art stayed with Twister thought out most of the night, finding that he was indeed one of the most normal ponies here; however he also found about a bit more about him as the night passed. Twister had come to Ponyville from Fillydelphia, an accomplished athlete in his high school who felt extremely confident that he would be picked to play for a big school in any sport. It turns out Twister was confident that he could to anything and perfectly at that. Another thing Art found out that he should have guessed from the moment they met was that Twister was considered a playpony, he loved the mares and the mares loved him. Art didn’t mind the company of mares, but after a while the constant swooning over the Pegasus was getting worn out, and fake. There were few things that annoyed Art more than false affection just because of status, and being surrounded by this for most of the night eventually leads him to leave, heading out side of the house they had been at.
“He’s a bit overwhelming at times isn’t he?”
Art looked up quickly surprised to see the tan earth pony standing outside at the corner of the house, his fedora tilted low over his eyes till he raised it.
“I figured Twister and you had more in common being from bigger towns, so I thought I would let you spend some time with him. He’s still young through so his heads in the wrong places, gets him in trouble he needs help getting out of. He’s a good Stallion; he just needs to grow up a little.”
“That’s why you’re interested in him isn’t it?” Art ask walking over to join him.
“I guess you could say that. I know it may seem like a rag tag group of friends I have, but there’s something special to each one of these guys.”
“Ok, I can see that with Twister being talented and everything, and Tool with his building skills… but that pony, Spark. What’s the interest there; he seems a little… out of it, if you don’t mind me saying.”
Case laughs and flicks the tip of his hat. “Spark is a genius, without a doubt the smartest pony you will ever meet. The problem is he doesn’t know it because he has a short attention span and too much energy.”
From what he had seen Art had trouble believing this but then again what was there to gain from lying to him about Spark. He would just have to wait and see if something happened to prove Case’s point. “Ok, so what about me? I’m already doing ok in Manehatten, why am I an “interest” to you?”
Case simply shrugs and steps away from the corner of the building to join Art in the road. “I don’t know yet, just call it a hunch. I get a lot of those, just like I had a hunch that Twister’s party would be more than you wanted.”
“And what if I had fit in just fine there?”
“But you didn’t…”
He sighed a little realizing that he wouldn’t win with this pony. “Ok, since I didn’t fit in there where am I going to go next, since you seem to know where everything is going?”
Again Case just laughed and turned to walk down the road. “well you follow me to Tool’s place and enjoy the little get together the three of us set up for you, there you get to know the three of us better and realize that Tool is more than just a crazed pony who builds contraptions to protect us from the darkness, and that Spark is more than just a clumsy over energetic lightning rod. You also realize that Case will always know what happens before you do something and will tell you if it’s a bad idea or not.”
Case turns around to look at the unicorn that stared him down for a moment, before he finally breaks down and walks up next to him.
“Fine, but I had better not have to play dodge ball with anymore fireballs in that place.”
“Oh don’t worry about that, Tool turned those off. Just watch your step in the yard.”
Author's Note
this wasn't checked by anyone and i feel the quality of it fell apart as i got near the end. sorry if this one came out worse than my previous chapters. i've been so far behind i had to get something finished so i felt like i'm getting somewhere.
Once again Art pushed the door to his home open, levitating his bag up to a hook where it normally hung, but missed it by a few inches. He would have gone back and placed it properly on the hook but instead he just walked over to his couch and plopped down in exhaustion.
“Seriously… The chief really needs to rethink his reporting crew. I have to correct half the stuff they bring me and turn the rest of it away. I didn’t even manage to get any of my own stuff done today much less the-.” He suddenly bolted upright. “The book that Celestia asked me to look into!”
He turned and looked over to the book bag he had failed to place properly and spotted the book lying halfway out of the bag. Art quickly jumped up and rushed over, pulling it from the bag and rushed to his desk, grabbing several documents and scrolls from different places with his magic as he went. In seconds he had papers and several other parchments lying across the desk, sprawled out on the floor, and even magically hung in the air. His quill worked across one paper then moving to another paper making notes of one symbol while comparing another one similar to it. Despite how exhausted he was just moments ago, he was now excited enough to continue for hours.
* * *
Art had lost all track of time by the time he had the seventh sheet of paper filled with scribbles and half written notes. Now he was on the 32nd sheet and had thrown several books to the side after finding them useless, replacing them with others. Finally the first sound that brought him from this world of paper and ink was a knock at his door, which received an annoyed look as he let all the papers fall to the ground.
“Always when I’m getting right into the middle of something…” he grumbled as he walked over.
“Chief?” Art ask questioningly as he saw the maroon colored pegasus standing there.
“Art have you just been sitting around here?”
Art shrugged as he sat back down at his desk. “It can’t be any later than-,” he said, glancing at his clock. His ears, mane, tail and mouth all dropped as he saw the time. It was already 12:00 which meant he’d worked straight through the night, and now was 6 hours late to work. “WHAT! It- it can’t be I’ve only been working on this for a few hours. I-I can’t already be that late for work!”
The unicorn ran upstairs to check his other clock. Sure enough it said the same thing. He had been working on the book since he had gotten home at 4 the previous day. It was now already 12 and he hadn’t even shown up to work!
“Chief! I’m so sorry; you know I don’t normally do this. I-I just got caught up in the book and all, I’ll come in tomorrow extra early I promise-!”
The chief cut him off as he sighed and raised his hoof to stop him. “Art… I know this isn’t like you; that’s why I’m not mad at you. But I am a little worried. You have never showed up late, and if you aren’t coming in you always call, so when you never showed up… well I figured I should check up on you.”
The pegasus looked over at the mess around the desk Art had been at; already he knew what it meant. Art’s desk had looked like this a few times at the office, and each time it meant that Art was completely enthralled with a project.
“I can see that you are already deep into this… So-.”
The chief was suddenly stopped by Art putting a hoof over his mouth and giving him a worried look.
“Chief it’s only happened this once; don’t fire me because of this.”
The chief laughed and moved Art’s hoof away. “Art, I was just gonna say. You have some days off that you haven’t taken, I was just gonna suggest you take them off to get this little project of your started.”
There was no holding in Art’s sigh of relief as he heard this from the chief.
Art blushed a little hearing this come from his boss, and bit his lip. “Well… I guess you’re going to have to find out this week aren’t you…”
The chief shrugged his shoulders and nodded. “Yeah guess we will have to find out. So any idea how long this little project of yours is going to take you?”
Art thought about it for a moment and walked over to the desk looking through the papers; he was a little surprised as he saw what he had written down.
“To be honest… I was expecting this to be a month and a half worth of study, and another week of actual translating…”
When he said this the chief began to rethink his offer to let Art off for this project.
“However… I’m actually ahead of what I thought I would be… Working all night seems to have put me where I pictured I would be in a week or so.”
Hearing this, the chief let out the breath he had been holding in.
“This is great news; I should really let the princess know what I’ve managed.”
Immediately Art was searching through papers for a blank one to start a message to the princess when the chief laughed lightly and started to leave.
“Alright then Art, just take it easy. Get some rest too, I can see that you haven’t slept yet and since I know you I’m gonna stop by a few times to make sure you aren’t killing yourself with this work. I can’t risk losing my head transcript just because of some research.” He could already tell that Art hadn’t heard what he just said since he seemed to be off in his own world as he wrote to the princess. He shook his head and rolled his eyes before walking out to leave the unicorn to his work, shutting the door as he left.
* * *
Princess Celestia was returning to her study room when she saw one of the guards leaving the room.
The Princess bowed to him and in return received a deep bow from him. “Thank you, you may return to your post.”
The Guard nodded as he stood back up and walked around the princess. As she walked into the study she gave a light sigh at the thought of having her personal messages checked for anything dangerous, however she knew that despite being the pony who raised the sun and moon, and adored by almost everypony around… there were still those few who did not like her rule.
“I suppose most of this will be from some of the high class ponies, or ponies complaining about not having a fair share of the economy here in Equestria…”
Despite most of her messages being just that, she did delight in hearing from a few who wished to thank her for her duties and for being the kind and generous pony that she was, and even a few letters from the ponies in her magic school; the most common of those were from her own personal student Twilight Sparkle, however she had her own way to send messages so those were often easier to get. The pile today was slightly smaller than most days but she went about sorting them into two stacks, one she looked forward to opening, then another she would probably just write on letter addressing them all and send it to them all. She worked her way through the letters, sorting them into her stacks until she finally came across one that she couldn’t leave to finish sorting through the rest. The letter was from Art, the pony she had tasked with translating the book she believed had a link to something special that may occur in a few weeks. When she saw his name she quickly pulled the paper open and began reading it.Dear Princess,
I know I had my doubts as to when I could achieve any progress in translating the book in the desired time you ask, however I found myself enthralled in what I came across and lost track of time – and even lost track of the things I had uncovered. I know this has only been a day or two since you left, but already I am seeing several things that I believe you may need to know, along with a great deal more that I do not understand. I believe you may know more about what is being explained than I do. The chief editor has allowed me time off to get this finished so I have a lot more time to work on it than previously believed to. By the time you get this I will probably already have even more that leaves me confused, but it is still progress nonetheless. Below I have encased a few papers with some of the things I didn’t quite understand but I think you may want to know right away. I can’t thank you enough for allowing me this chance to look this over; it has really reminded me as to why I love working with the paper and why I find such things interesting. With luck I may have this book translated by the time you need it done.
Your Faithful Pony
Art
Celestia didn’t realize how much she was smiling until she placed the letter back on the desk, a light shake of her head and she returned to her casual look turning to the papers that had fallen with the message. Using little effort she lifted the papers and looked them over, reading out loud a few of the parts.
“…the waking nightmare walks Equestria unchallenged… Harmony no longer wielded… Lunar corruption… solar elements laid to waste… Everypony’s dreams become their nightmare…” Celestia quickly laid the paper back on her desk and walked over to her bookshelf, pulling out one of her books. “Then I will not be able to save you…”
A look of sorrow passed over the princess’s face as she looked into the books contents.
“I should have never let this come about… Now because of my inability to see how you felt about things I may never get to see you again…” Celestia gave a light sigh and returned the book to its place. “This is the price I must pay for my narrow sightedness…”
She returned to the papers again remembering the second paper that Art had sent with the translation. Slowly she lifted it up and started to look over it, certain that it contained nothing of any more use or any hope of lifting her spirits. As she started reading she began mouthing words as she went, slowly starting to speak out loud as she went.
“When harmony’s link is broken the bearers will no longer maintain its power… However they will find their place in a new bearer’s heart… Though once by unity harmony was maintained, now through friendship it will be regained… Its power as strong as the bearers’ numbers… One pony’s nightmare will return to a dream! This is it! We may be able to bring you home after all…”
Celestia brought up the papers, placing them together again and retrieved the same book from earlier, folding them as she placed them on the inside of the book and returned it to its place.
“Until this little pony finishes the translation I will have to wait… But if it is what I need to return you safely, then I can wait just a little while longer…”
Celestia tried to return to her work, going through messages again, but knew all day her mind would be on what Art had uncovered.
* * *
The desk had gone from a few stacks of papers here and there to an unorganized pile of papers; several hanging off the sides and several more already creating a new stack on the floor. The books he had been using were now discarded to the side, some half closed or still opened as they were thrown to the side. Many pages were now held up on the wall by nails instead of magic since there were far more than Art could handle with his. Art himself was still leaning over the book with one organized stack or papers next to it; these were the translations of the book and not the various notes that litter the room now. It had been a week since he had started – of course he had to stop to eat now and then, and to go to the town library to get more books that would help him on the translating, but those would only stop him for a few minutes. He had allowed himself to sleep once, but when he started again he lost track of where he had been. It took him a while to get back to the place he had been before, so he decided he could rest once this was all done. The chief had come by twice, and the last time he had warned him about getting some sleep, but Art just nodded and agreed to sleep as soon as he left just to satisfy him. Needless to say as soon as he left Art was full back into the book. Now there was another knock at the door followed by the chief opening the door and coming on in.
“Good grief Art… you didn’t do what I said before did you…”
Art was still hoping to pay him no attention until he felt a headbutt on his side and saw the chief pushing him away from the book.
“BED, NOW!”
Art grabbed the book with his magic pulling it along with him.
“Chief look how much I have left, I have fifty more pages to go through! If I go to sleep now I’m gonna lose my place and forget half of the stuff I have done!”
The chief slapped the book down with his hoof and stared Art down. “Look at you kid, you’re exhausted! I know this look from you and I always have to step in when you get like this! Kid you’re a great worker, dedicated and determined to finish things, but you need someone to keep you in line and remind you that you’re still mortal and you need sleep. Now you had better not tell me that you haven’t been eating ether!”
Art’s ears dropped and he looked down like a foal getting punished. “No… I have been eating… But I’m just so close…”
The chief put his head in Art’s face again and pushed him towards the stairs. “And it will be like that when your wake up. Now get to bed kid!”
Art sighed in defeat knowing this time the chief wasn’t going to leave until Art complied and stated making his way up the stairs. The chief watched him go up the stairs and head to his bedroom, then turned and looked at the papers and books thrown about the room, heading over to pick up a few when he heard Art call from above him.
“Chief… Please don’t touch anything…”
He rolled his eyes for a moment then looked up at the unicorn as he peered down at him from upstairs. “Fine, whatever…”
With that he went over to the door and made his way out, barely closing the door and looked back in to see if Art was already making his way back down stairs. After a moment more of silence and nothing else the chief went ahead and closed the door, heading back to the paper office. There was a light shimmer in the air at the stairs then Art’s magic faded as he came in to full view.
“Looks like that camouflage spell came in handy after all…”
An odd feeling made Art look over his shoulders up the stairs where he had been a few minutes ago, for a second he could swear he had seen a small black figure, about the size of a foal. He shook his head again and looked at the same place but saw nothing.
“Maybe the chief was right… I’m starting to see things now… then again…”
He walked back up the stairs turning the lights on and looked around for a moment, searching for anything that might look like the small figure he had imagined. Finally he gave up and made his way back down the stairs again. As he turned his head to look down he saw what looked like a lick of flame disappear around the corner of the stairs.
“Fire… NO! The book, my papers!”
He rushed the rest of the way down expecting to see something lit up with flames, but as he looked around he saw nothing except the flames from a few small candles. He sniffed the air thinking maybe he would smell something burning, but there was nothing that smelled anything like a fire; however there was a reminder that he had skipped a few baths these last few days. There was no sign of a fire, nor was there a smell, and the house itself was actually still quite cold, the way he liked it. He let out a light sigh and hung his head.
“Ok… So I am seeing things now… and I will admit, I’m starting to feel sleepy. I think I should take a bath… it has been a while, and it will help me wake up and stop me from seeing things.”
He took one last look around for any signs of a fire or anything similar, though apart from the candle flames, there was nothing. As a precaution, he whiffed out the lit candles with his magic and proceeded towards his bathroom for a shower.
* * *
Art walked from the bathroom rubbing his mane with his towel then tossed it into a basket as he walked out.
“Yeah, that defiantly helped me wake up, and now I doubt I will be seeing things ether.”
As he walked down the stairs he stopped at the bottom and looked over the mess around his desk; the shower had not only woken him up, it also made him realize just how much of a mess he’d made of the place.
“Wow, I was really out of it.”
He was never considered a messy pony, and usually had a clean house, but he wasn’t overly obsessed with being clean. He took a look over at the book, half covered with a few papers, then turned away from it. The chief was right. It had stayed like that when he woke up; it could probably last a little bit longer while he took some time to clean up. After some cleaning and a bit of organizing, Art stood back and looked at the desk that was now back to its usual look. Despite having taken a bath he still felt a little tired and let out a long yawn. He ignored it for now and sat back down deciding to get back to work and put off getting some rest until after a few more chapters. He spread out a few papers he had started before and placed five more in the air. He managed to return to work and soon began progressing through the chapter, however the closer to the end of the chapter he got the more he found his eyes starting to close. He tried several different attempts to stay awake; from simply shaking his head quickly, to hitting the back of his head with his hoof. Despite all this he soon succumbed to sleep as his head hit the desk slowly. He made one last attempt to stay awake as he barely opened his eyes just slightly, feeling that this time something wasn’t right. He barely noticed when the picture of he and his mother passed in front of him, or rather he moved past the picture.
“What the…”
He tried look around but became much more tired as he did. It was then that he recognized the feel of magic being used on him.
Somepony is using sleep magic!
He tried thinking of anypony he knew that might know any kind of magic that could put him to sleep, but a quiet voice in his head stopped him. I’m sorry… but you’re tired…
He felt like he knew the voice, but he knew he had never heard it before because it sounded like a young foal’s voice. He felt the strength of whatever was affecting him get stronger. Before his head finally fell once again, he caught a glimpse of a small black figure before he finally fell asleep.
* * *
When Art regained his senses he jumped up quickly expecting to have to fight somepony, but no pony was around. He wasn’t in his house any longer, he wasn’t even in Manehattan. He was once again looking at the black landscape and orange sunset of the dream he had become quite familiar with.
“This again…”
He looked around for the one thing that was out of place and soon spotted the Weeping Willow on a hill off in the distance. This time there was no crying sound to be heard. He sat down under one of the normal trees and looked off at the one odd tree sitting in the distance.
“What just happened? I don’t know any unicorn that is good enough to manage a sleep spell like that. Also what would they get from-?”
Suddenly his eyes grew wide as he thought about the only possible reason a unicorn would put him to sleep and carry him off.
“The book!” he jumped up and started rushing around, looking for some way to leave. “No! No! No! No! No! I have to get back, or wake up, or whatever I need to do. I have to keep them from getting that book!”
I’m sorry…
The voice echoed in his head and stopped him dead in this tracks. “You! You’re the pony who put me to sleep aren’t you!”
Art stomped his hooves on the ground and looked around for the faceless voice in his head. “You won’t get the book for long! The Princess has a spell on it that will bring it back to her!”
There was a silence for a moment that annoyed him the longer it went, then, finally:
I- I’m… not trying to take it.
“Then what’s the meaning of forcing me to sleep and carrying me off?”
The silence didn’t last as long this time but there was something in the way the voice sounded that eased his anger a little.
I… I was just… trying to help .
It took him a while to realize the voice didn’t belong to some omnipotent creature, or even a mature unicorn, but had a small squeak to it, like a foal’s voice.
“Help? How are you helping? I’m in the middle of something important and you’re pulling me away from it! You’re defiantly not helping me so who are you helping?” Art sat for a while waiting for an answer but didn’t seem to be getting on this time. “Answer me!”
He slammed his hooves to the ground again, gritting his teeth in annoyance.
I’m sorry… This time the voice was much more timid, sounding almost hurt and injured, even on the verge of crying. You were tired… and you haven’t slept in days..
There was a light sniffle at the end of the words that Art recognized as the one he had heard under the Willow tree several times.
“Wait a minute… You’re-!”
I’m sorry! I wasn’t trying to make you mad. I’ll leave you alone!
Hearing this Art jumped up and reached out as if to catch whoever it was. “Wait! I’m not mad! I just thought that-…” He didn’t bother finishing because he knew whoever it was that he had been talking to was now gone. “Horse apples… first contact with the little guy and I ruin it… but still, what is it? He can be in the waking world as well as the dream world… and he managed a spell like that.” He slowly laid down on the dark grass sighing as he crossed his hooves and laid his head on them. “Guess I have some time to think about this for a while… doesn’t look like I’m gonna wake up for a while.”
* * *
Time passed but Art had no way of knowing how long he was really sleeping for until he felt a familiar comfy object beneath him. It was a welcome sight when one moment he was looking off at the Willow tree then turned away and found himself waking up in his bed. He pulled the covers back and sat on the edge of the bed for a moment yawning loudly. “What time is it?” He rolled his eyes at his own question. “Not like it would matter, I lost track of time during all the work, and cleaning, and… ponynapping, I guess you could call it.”
Thinking back to what happened in the dream he began to question if he should believe what was said.
“I’m going to check on the book… just to be sure.” he found himself slowly creeping down the stairs, half expecting somepony to be there. Sure enough nopony was standing there, and a big sigh of relief came when he saw the book still lying out on the desk. As he made his way over to it he found himself flipping through pages making sure there was no difference in the one he had looked over before he went to sleep. He didn’t find any as he made it to the page he had stopped on and put it back in place.
“Ok, so there wasn’t any dark sinister plot behind all this… but why would somepony do that just because they were worried about me.”
He thought about the chief who had come by moments before the sleep incident. “Well sure there’s the chief, but he’s a pegasus so he can’t do magic. There’s my mom… but that voice belonged to a foal, and she doesn’t know that kind of magic.”
He was going to have to wait for his answer until the day he finally met whoever the pony was behind the Willow tree. That was the only choice he had for now, that is, if he ever heard from that pony again. He pulled himself back up into the chair and was about to get started on translating again but as he looked at the stacks of paper, he began to realize just how much he had managed to get done in the time he had worked on the book.
“I’m… actually ahead of where I thought I would be…”
His mind drifted back to the chief when he had come over and forced him to bed like his mother would have when he was a colt.
“Guess I have overworked myself a little.”
He guessed he had probably slept thought the night as he looked at a calendar and figured how many days he had been gone from work. He saw that it was going on about 2 weeks now.
“By Celestia, the paper must be a mess by now without me,” he said as a joke to himself, knowing that wasn’t completely true but knew that a few mistakes would have slipped through. Finally, after a long while of sitting and looking at the book and going over things in his head, he sighed lightly and closed it. “I’ll be back later, for now I think I’ve lived in my little fantasy world for long enough. I had better write to the Princess first; she is probably wondering why she hasn’t heard anything about the translation in a while.”
He finished placing the last few notes in the desk and started the letter to the Princess, not noticing the small black figure sitting at the top of the stairway.
* * *
It had been a week since Art had finally come to his senses about the mad obsession with translating Celestia’s book, returning to work at the paper and working on the book in his spare time like Celestia had probably expected him to do in the first place. He figured out that he had slept for two days when the incident happened, because the chief had left his house that day and Art had returned to work two days later, even though he had thought it was only the next day. He hadn’t told the chief about the dream or being forced to sleep, partially because he wasn’t sure how to tell him an unseen foal used magic to put him to sleep then tuck him into bed because they were worried about him, but mostly because he wasn’t quite sure he believed it himself. Still Art had returned to a normal work process and still managed to finish the translation in time.
Art left the newspaper offices, giving a nod to the chief as he left and progressed onward to his house. He knew that most likely there was a letter from the Princess addressing his last one to her, informing her that he had finished and was doing a few last minute checks. Aside from being relieved that he had managed to finish the work, and on time, as well as without another odd encounter with the one from his dreams, Art had one thing on his mind and hoped that Celestia herself would be picking up the results and book herself. Usually when translating something a pony would understand what is going on in the book and why it had been written or what its purpose was, this time Art had not been able to comprehend what he had read and written down. For this reason he wanted desperately to know if she understood something he didn’t and maybe she would even let him in on why the book mentioned alicorns quite often, as well as nightmares, darkness, and a few other things dealing what the past of Equestria. But one thing had bothered him the most as he started to find references to the moon, lunar figures, and even odd mentions of a-.
Art’s train of thought was interrupted as he almost stepped out in front of a cart being pulled by an earth pony.
“Man, I have to stop daydreaming when I walk home… that’s the third time this week.”
The mare frowned at him for having to stop her heavy cart there, and Art could only give an apologetic smile to her and make his way around her and on home. He had expected to at least get to his mailbox before stopping in confusion, mostly if there was no letter from the Princess. Instead he found himself stopping as soon as he saw his house – and the royal carriage waiting outside it.
“I really wish she would let me know if she is just going to show up…” he said to himself as he made his way over to the two armored pegasi. “Um… greetings sirs. I take it the Princess is here to see me?”
“O…k… I’ll just go see to her then…”
He waited to see if either one of them had anything to say while slowly walking on up to the door and making his way in. As he had expected, the regal alicorn was standing in front of his desk looking down at the book he had placed to the side.
“Good evening Princess,” Art said as he bowed low.
She turned to look at him. “Ah Art, I hope I am not intruding on anything.”
He stood back up and joined her at his desk, seeing that she had already looked over a few things. “Not at all, I was actually just returning from work, you haven’t had to wait too long I hope.”
Celestia shook her head, causing her sparkling, multi-colored, wavy mane to shift about. “Don’t worry about it, I found something to keep me preoccupied while I waited.”
He leaned in over the papers to see what she had already looked at and prepared for several questions about the papers. “Yes, well, I had expected a letter saying when you might arrive but I guess I should get use to these sudden appearances now.”
The princess let out a small laugh and smiled at him. “Let me apologize for that, I have just been quite exuberant ever since you told me you had the final bits translated, and the bits you have showed me didn’t make me any less excited.”
Art was seeing the Princess as a whole different pony after meeting her twice now. Of course she had her regal stature, and an intellectual air about her, but she also seemed to have a casual side to her, one he would never picture on a royal alicorn.
“I don’t know how much you have read so far but if you have any questions I’ll try to explain, but to be honest I have a few… well actually I have a lot of questions.”
As he said this, Celestia raised an eyebrow curiously.
“Hmm… it’s not very often that a translator doesn’t understand what he translates.”
Art felt a little embarrassed at having to admit that he didn’t know what he had translated, but he knew it would be best to be honest.
“Well, it’s like I mentioned before in the letters, there’s a lot about alicorns in it, things that well… I just don’t know about. Also it tends to mention things from foal’s tales and other bedtime tales.”
The princess nodded and turned to the books and several papers Art had scrawled his translations on.
“I see, unfortunately I haven’t read too much but if you will allow me to I would like to stay and read over more of it.”
Art’s mouth dropped as she said this and he realized that would make her a guest in his home.
“Oh. Well. I won’t object to that, I mean, I thought you would pick it up and bring it back to Canterlot.”
Celestia turned her attention back to the book, opening it with magic and brought a few papers to the book.
“Normally yes, however I think it would help if I had the translator here so I can ask questions if need be.”
From what the two of them had just said Art came to realize that neither of them might even know what the book was all about.
“Of course, I don’t mind at all. What about your… er… escorts?” he said nodding to the door where the two guards were probably still outside. Celestia smiled and walked over to the front door, opening it for a moment and leaned out to the guards, talking to them for a moment, Art heard a moment later the sound of the chariot taking off as Celestia came back in.
“That’s better.”
Art started to head into his kitchen before turning back to the princess as she went back to the desk and started reading the pages.
“Could I get you anything Princess?”
While turning another page she glanced back and nodded. “If you have any honey nectar juice that would be quite nice.”
Luckily, he did indeed have some and quickly brought her a glass then sat on his couch nearby, unsure as to what to do now as the Princess sat reading his own work in his house. For the moment all he could think to do was sit and wait for any question to answer from the princess. Page after page and Celestia still hadn’t turned to look at him or even looked away from the book or his notes; he wasn’t able to see her face and was getting curious as to how she was reacting to what she was reading. As time passed she seemed to be going through the pages faster until there were only a few pages left. She finally stopped and looked up at the ceiling, her wings extending out to block his view of her for a moment until she finally turned around and gave him a big smile.
“Art I can never thank you enough for doing this, what I have just read is something I have hoped to find since- well… for many years.”
Art quickly hopped up off the couch and moved towards her.
“I-I-I’m just glad I could help, but if you don’t mind me asking… since you seem to know what it’s talking about. What is it talking about?”
Celestia gave him a look telling Art that she was picking her words carefully. “Art, there are things in this book that haven’t been addressed in many years, mostly things we alicorns have decided best to leave forgotten.”
“There are… other alicorns?”
Celestia nodded and continued. “Yes, there are a few others, though when I say few I do mean few.”
This was a surprise to Art for as long as he had known their Princess was the only alicorn they had known.
“Then may I ask why you needed this finished by the end of this month, is something going to happen?”
He was sure there was nothing to worry about while he had been working on the book but when Celestia turned her eyes away from him he had a bit of fear creep up in the back of his mind.
“I cannot say… this knowledge however has made things less complicated and has helped me understand a bit more of what I am going to need to do soon.”
The way she said this didn’t help the small bit of fear that had now spread a little more. “Princess… I know I may be asking a lot, but I think since I helped here… I would like to know a little more about that’s going on, or what’s about to happen.”
Celestia closed her eyes for a moment seeming to think about what he had just ask, before finally sighing and returning her gaze to him. “I’m sorry Art, but I cannot give you that information right now.”
It took a lot of self-control to keep himself from demanding more but he knew this was the ruler of Equestria, and that if she was refusing to tell him something then he had no right to demand that she tell him even if he had spent the time he did in translating the book.
“However…”
Art’s hopes rose slightly when Celestia said this.
“I do believe without your assistance in this I would not know what I know now, there for I will agree that you should know what I can allow you to know.” She went over to a nearby window and looked out towards where the sun was placed in the sky. “You are familiar the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration.”
Art nodded and answered her question. “Yes, I did the article on the last one you had in Manehattan.”
Celestia nodded and smiled. “And you were quite generous with your depiction of the raising, however this year it is being held in a small town. Ponyville.”
Art had seen mention of the town a few times, mostly depicting it as a nice quite town, perfect for an older pony to retire to.
“I would like to answer all your questions there; perhaps there you will understand it better than if I told you here.”
Art’s habit of working with the paper urged him to get the information now, but he had to remind himself that this wasn’t for an article and that once again this was the Princess and he was not in the position to demand information from a pony like her. He finally sighed in defeat and nodded. “Ok, I’ll look forward to seeing you there then.”
Celestia bowed and Art returned a bow as she started to leave, carrying the book and papers out with her.
“I will get tickets with the train station for you to leave for Ponyville in two days but I would like to have you stop in Canterlot first and review a few things with the ponies I have had working on the other two books, perhaps you can show them what they were missing.”
Art nodded and followed her to the front door opening it for her. “Of course Princess, and if you wouldn’t mind I would like to take a look at the other two also.”
“I was hoping you would do just that, I also believe the lead pony of the research team has an offer for you. I would love to stay and continue speaking with you but it is getting late and it is almost time for me to set the sun lower, so I will bid you farewell for now.”
Just as she was about to step outside Art called out to her once more.
“Wait, I know you said you would tell me what you can in Ponyville… but I have to ask about one thing that caught my attention the most. Princess… you used to have a sister didn’t you?”
His question stopped her in her tracks but she hadn’t turned to look at him, leaving Art to wonder if he had asked the wrong thing. Finally she stepped out the door and unfurled her wings. “I’m sorry… but I do not wish to speak of that right now.”
Art’s ears lowered as he realized it was indeed a touchy subject he had feared it would be. “Oh… yes, I apologize.”
She lightly flapped her wings and left. Art slowly turned back into his house and closed the door as he crumbled to the floor. He wasn’t emotionally bothered by the talk he had had with the Princess, he was exhausted from trying to remain proper that whole time, trying to remember everything his mother had told him about standing straight, proper bowing, and speaking in the correct way.
“By Celestia! How am I going to manage being like that all day at the Castle?!”
Author's Note
a big thanks to HeartShield my self appointed editor, he choose to edit the raw version of this before i looked it over for flaws and such myself and really put alot of work into correcting my mistakes. if u like this be sure to thank him for the effort he put into it and providing me with a cover for the story.Heartshield
