Plain Old Chaos

Twilight Sparkle looked over the apple trees that covered Sweet Apple Acres. Her new friend Applejack was making her way around to buck the trees and collect the apples. She would help her friend but Applejack had told her she did not want her to use magic and Twilight was too physically weak to keep up a reasonable pace with the far more muscled earth pony.

Since it had only been a short while since Twilight had come to Ponyville, Twilight had extremely little to talk about having already mentioned the orange mare's family, in an effort to not seem like an awkward silent addition to Applejack’s routine, she decided to talk about the only thing she had in common with her new-found friend; the Nightmare Moon incident.

“So…” Twilight began awkwardly, dragging her hoof against the ground bashfully, “That whole situation with Princess Luna, that was interesting, right?”

Applejack stopped her attempt at bucking a tree and turned to Twilight before responding, she seemed to glare slightly at Twilight as she said. ”Well, I just think that it’s fantastic that an old mare’s tale ‘bout a tyrant who tried to take over Equestria got released from the moon, tried to kill us, lost and got made the ruler of Equestria as some kind of consolation prize.”

Twilight was shocked by the anger in Applejack's tone. "What?! Why are you so worked up about it? It's not like she meant to kill us or anything, she was possessed by all her negative emotions, Princess Celestia herself said that, do you think that she would Luna go free if she was still dangerous? She's the wisest pony I know; she would never do something that reckless."

Applejack's slight glare morphed into a face of complete rage. "That's the craziest thing I ever heard. do ya really think that Celestia is right and her sister should just be let go. She tried to kill us! Do ya not care about that at all?"

Twilight felt that Applejack had a point. “She did try to kill us a few times, but we freed her with the elements of harmony!” Twilight furrowed her brow in confusion as she pondered her own statement. “Actually, it does seem kinda strange that  Princess Celestia let her go when she also said that we freed her from her own jealousy and anger, but if Celestia says that it’s okay then I am sure that she has the situation under control.”

"The mare's a psychopath Twi, ya' just said it yourself right there, do ya' really think that its wise  to put a pony who tried to kill us in charge of Equestria? And that’s only this time ‘round. She might have killed hundreds last time before she got banished to the moon.” Applejack's face lost its angered look as it gained a grin that seemed to grow  as she continued to slander  Princess Luna.” Did ya’ ever stop to wonder and think that maybe the Princess would be ‘motionally compromised, a thousand years on her own can’t have been easy on her.”

"Y-you have a point, She might try again sometime, could the Princess even stop her if she tried again?" Twilight tried to rationalize her thoughts. "I bet I can find a book about this, and it will say that the Nightmare Moon was not that bad. I bet they just had... a little fight, a small tiny little fight and nopony even got hurt and then Nightma- I mean Luna got banished to the moon, it's not an issue at all. ".

"Well then, Twi, you should go do that, I need to buck some more apples. You should head off back to town before it gets late."

Looking at the sun, Twilight could see that it was a little closer to the ground then when they had started their trek out to the apple fields to gather apples. Since her friend was clearly in no mood to talk and Twilight was anxious to prove that Luna was completely safe, she decided that it would be best if she took Applejack’s suggestion and left.

“You’re right, it’s getting dark, I should head back. Spike is only a baby dragon after all, no telling what he might have gotten up to while I was gone. Goodbye Applejack.”

Before Applejack could say anything, she took off at a brisk pace in the direction of Ponyville. She gave a shaky greeting when she passed Big Macintosh, who seemed to be heading towards Applejack, probably to help her sister finish up the harvest before it got dark.

By the time Twilight reached the town, it had gotten very dark. She had misjudged just how large the Apple farm was and spent a lot of her time trying to find her way through the apple trees that all seemed to blur together into some sort of endless maze when she was not guided through them by Applejack. Twilight could not see many ponies around, which she remembered was one of the reasons that Princess Luna had gone mad and tried to bring about eternal night, but she was very, very sure that there was enough around for her to not go insane and try to kill them all again. She cursed Applejack under her breath, her words were going to cause some nightmares for her tonight.

While making her way toward her home, Twilight spotted somepony she had not expected: a pony she knew from Canterlot, Lyra, was walking down the path. She decided that she would not miss this rare opportunity to talk to a pony she had met before, they weren't really friends but Twilight desperately wanted to talk to somepony familiar and get her mind off of Nightmare Moon, she set out on a path to intercept her before she disappeared around the corner.

“Hey Lyra! I didn’t expect to see you here in Ponyville. So, what brings you here instead of staying in Canterlot? Weren’t you going to audition for a spot in the royal orchestra?”

Lyra jumped back and gave a small gasp before turning to Twilight and stammering out. “H-hey Twilight, it’s nice to see you, didn’t really expect to see you h-here.”

“In Ponyville, you mean? Didn’t you notice that big announcement with the princess showing up to congratulate us  on defeating Nightmare Moon? Where I said that I wanted to stay in Ponyville with my new friends and not go back to Canterlot? How exactly could you miss something like that? It's not like much goes on here."

Lyra shuffled awkwardly on her hooves and glanced about. ”Oh yeah, that… I was busy then, making cookies with my friend Bon-Bon, to celebrate, since cookies make everypony happy. Anyway, I really need to get going now, since Bon-Bon will be worried because it’s late. Bye!”

“Bye.” Lyra had ran off and Twilight doubted that she had heard her. She remembered Lyra acting far less skittish back in Canterlot, but she guessed that since she basically ignored everypony in favour of studying that she might just have misjudged her. She decided that she would speak to Lyra again tomorrow when both of them would be less tired and maybe Lyra would not be in such a rush to get back to Bon-Bon. Lyra might even introduce her.

Reaching the library, Twilight opened the door and made her way inside. She could see that Spike had been busy working and had shelved all the books. She could not see the little dragon around and she assumed he had gone to sleep in his basket after he finished up his chores around the library.  Glad that the place was in order, Twilight headed to the kitchen to make herself a small meal before she went up the stairs. A quick glance confirmed that Spike was sleeping before she went onto her bed, Tomorrow, she would get Spike to search the library for books on what exactly had happened during Nightmare Moon’s first attempt at gaining the throne of Equestria.

When Twilight woke up, the first rays of Celestia’s sun were shining through the window above her bed, although the temptation to stay in bed was present, Twilight had a lot to do today and got herself out of the bed. Spike, being a lazy baby dragon, had stayed in his basket instead of getting up to make Twilight breakfast like she had been training him to do since he hatched.

She gave the purple dragon a nudge with her hoof. “Spike! Wake up; you need to go make breakfast now, we’ve been over this, remember?”

The dragon groaned slightly before looking up at Twilight with eyes that were bloodshot from lack of sleep.” Twilight, couldn’t you just let me sleep and go make your own breakfast?”

“Nope! We got lots to do today Spike, I need you to search the library for books about Nightmare Moon and her rebellion a thousand years ago. Normally, I would be eating breakfast around now but since you didn’t do the one job I tell you to do in the morning, I can’t do that now can I?”

Twilight’s gaze hardened and she glared at Spike like Princess Celestia had told her to whenever he did something he against her wishes.” Spike, if you search the library now, I won’t punish you like I did last time, I’ll just pretend it never happened, Okay?” Twilight actually felt bad about that, but the Princess insisted that she be firm with him and Twilight did not want to disappoint her mentor, although her mentor was starting to look like she might have gone just a tiny bit insane after being alone for a thousand years.

Spike’s pupils seemed to dilate as he thought about the closet he had been locked into the last time he had disobeyed Twilight , or Twilight guessed that he was thinking anyway. “T-thanks Twilight, for not punishing me, I-I’ll just go and search for those books you want then.”

The dragon quickly got out of his basket and rushed down the stairs to start searching the library, Twilight pondered that she was getting pretty good at this carrot and stick stuff that the Princess had taught her. She decided that since Spike had not made her breakfast she could probably get something to eat at Sugarcube Corner, they probably sold food there that wasn’t as sugary as the name suggests, she could at least get a muffin there and say hello to Pinkie, levitating a saddlebag that had a few bits in it she made her way out of the library.

The town of Ponyville was bustling with activity compared to when she was walking through it the night before, ponies trotted around at a far more sedate pace than she remembered back in Canterlot and the whole place was just far less crowded.

Twilight went towards Sugarcube Corner, its unique and colorful design clearly showing her where the building was located, when she went inside she could see Pinkie was working at a counter that had many different types of treats and pastries on display behind a glass display case, Since no other pony was attempting to buy anything Twilight used this chance to get herself a muffin.

“Hey Pinkie, I want to buy a muffin.”

Pinkie Pie turned to Twilight. “Oh, hey, Twilight, that will be five bits.” Pinkie then grabbed one of the muffins that was on display behind the glass case and place it on the counter.

“So, Pinkie, whenever you finish work, we should hang out.”

Pinkie’s eyes seemed to light up with an eldritch fire when Twilight said those words.” Twilight, that’s a brilliant idea! I’ll head over to the library in a few hours when I finish up here. I'll see if I can bring Dashie, I saw her sleeping on a cloud earlier so i don't think that she's doing anything important."

She levitated five bits out of her bag and placed them on the counter, grabbing the muffin she muttered a quick goodbye to Pinkie and left Sugarcube Corner. She decided that going back to the library would be unfair to Spike, he deserved a little more time to search for the books she had asked for.

Deciding to look around the town a bit more, Twilight took a look at the buildings around her, very few of them looked like they were shops, most of them looked like houses, not surprising since Ponyville didn’t really look like it had much in it besides  a bakery and a really big farm.

From where she was she could see several stalls in the town square selling food, a shop called quills and sofas that she guessed sold quills and sofas and a shop that had a sign with a bar of chocolate and some cotton candy on it. Twilight figured that since ponies seemed to have a slightly disturbing ability to match up names to cutie marks and everypony seemed intent on getting a  job that matched up to those, It was very likely that Lyra’s friend Bon-Bon worked in a confectionary.

Heading into the shop twilight saw a single earth pony mare at the counter, the shop itself was full of all sorts of candies. Since it would be a little awkward for Twilight to just ask if she knew Lyra so she grabbed a chocolate bar with her magic and levitated it over to the mare she assumed was Bon-Bon, looking at the wrapping of the bar she could see that it cost two bits.

“Hey, this chocolate bar, it costs two bits, right?” At the mare’s nod she levitated two bits out of her saddlebag and dropped them on the counter. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, I just moved into Ponyville a few days ago.”

The mare seemed to perk up at a chance for some conversation. “Oh, hi Twilight, my name is Bon-Bon, welcome to Ponyville. Remember, if you are looking for chocolate and other candies, you should come here. We have a much better range then Sugarcube Corner. A completely different selection too, also, they spit in their food and you shouldn’t go there.

Twilight decided that the confectionary may not be doing very well and attempted to steer conversation towards finding out about Lyra, “That’s just great, thanks for the advice. So, Bon-Bon, I was talking to Lyra yesterday and she mentioned that you know her, total coincidence that I happened to run into you, but since I did, I was hoping, could you tell me a bit about her? I knew her when she lived in Canterlot and it’s nice to see a familiar face here.”

Bon-Bon seemed rather surprised.”Lyra never told me she lived in Canterlot, she just showed up about a year ago and eventually she moved in with me. it's kinda weird that she never mentioned it,” The earth pony shrugged, “Well, I’ll ask her about it when I see her again.”

Twilight figured that while she wasn’t exactly the most social of ponies back in Canterlot, she would notice if somepony that she knew moved away. Deciding to deal with this later, she bade farewell to Bon-Bon and after receiving another friendly warning to not buy anything at Sugarcube Corner she headed back to the library.

After entering the library, Twilight noticed Spike sitting at the wooden table that was in her kitchen connecting to the main room. He was eating some of the gems that Twilight bought to supplement his diet and provide the nutrients that eating meat would normally give him.

“So, Spike, you had plenty of time to find books on Nightmare Moon, So tell me, did you find anything?”

The dragon stopped eating his gems and standing up from the chair, he turned to face Twilight.”  Yes, I found a book a book on Night Mare Moon, it didn't look very good though, it just barely mentioned her, it also seemed kinda inaccurate, but it was all I could find, sorry." The dragon cowered slightly anticipating the punishment that he may receive." Also, a letter came from the Princess, I left that and the book on the table next to your bed.

Twilight decided that the Princess might be wrong and that Spike didn't need to be punished for every little thing he did wrong.” That's fine Spike, you tried, that's good enough"  The dragon seemed suprised but quickly composed himself and ran off into the kitchen and Twilight went upstairs to read a book that she hoped would put her fears at ease.