Chapters "Read it again," Twilight, said glancing down to the purple dragon briefly. She walked slowly along a dirt road path just along the outskirts of Ponyville. Recently, Celestia gave her a message, and directions, to follow. Twilight though, was still in complete disbelief over the whole thing.
"I've read it to you fourteen times." Spike gave a frustrated sigh. "No matter how many times I read it; it isn't going to change!" he held the piece of paper with both of his claws, the paper unfolded.
"Read it slowly." Twilight paused in her steps, looking down at Spike. "One part at a time."
"Alright, but this is the last one!" Spike was getting annoyed at the pony for having to read it so many times. Why couldn't she just read it herself?
"To my faithful student Twilight Sparkle, I am writing this letter to assure you that I have handled all matters and Mystery will no longer be a threat to Canterlot."
Twilight nodded, slowly starting up her walking pace again. "Yes. That part I understand. She knows after what happened at Canterlot that I want to know what she is going to do with that…thing." She couldn't even refer to Mystery as the pony that he was, much less his name.
"I have also made arrangements for Mystery to live just outside Ponyville."
Twilight closed her eyes as she lowered her head and shook it. "That part is…I don't get that. She's just releasing someone who just about destroyed Canterlot and sending him to Ponyville?! Read the next part." She would try to grasp why Celestia was even considering such a thing later on.
Spike sighed again. "I am also giving you a new mission. I am asking for you to help Mystery in Ponyville. He does not have any friends there at all."
"There!" Twilight suddenly turned to the dragon and lifted spike with her hooves, squeezing his cheeks tightly. Her face filled with worry. "She's telling me, ME, to help that depressing gray pony? What makes her think I would even want to help him?"
"You know there's more," Spike managed to say through his squeezed lips and raised the letter up between him and Twilight. "I know you may not like it, but treat this as a lesson to forgive and forget."
"Forget?" Twilight dropped spike to the ground and stood up on two hooves. She raised her forehooves up in the air. "FORGET?! Does she even REMEMBER what Mystery did?!"
Spike hit the ground with a thud. He rubbed his rear and glanced up at Twilight. "I know I do. I admit that it's weird Twilight. What can you do though? Are you going to refuse what she's asking you to do?"
"I don't know Spike," Twilight said with a sigh. She had been starting her pace of walking and stopping, and was now walking again at a very slow pace. "I can't refuse Celestia's orders. I guess, if nothing else, I'll at least make an appearance. That way I can say I tried."
"What do you think she means by 'help' though?" Spike finally rolled up the letter and rubbed his painful cheeks as he walked beside her.
"Probably earning his mark or something." Twilight lowered her head. "He is a flank blank you know." Twilight didn't want to recall his image of what he had turned into; much less remember what he even looked like in the first place. The gray pony with a pitch black hair and mane and a short gray horn. The pony had wings, but they were pitch black and emitted a magical glow that gave off a presence that reminded her of so many evils in the world she had faced before. Though it was the one feature that always stood out most was his rear; not a single cutie mark existed on his being. While young colts and fillies normally didn't get their marks until later in life, Mystery's age, based on how he looked at least, rivaled that of Twilight's own!
The pair walked slowly along the path until they reached a house. The house's green roof and yellow siding with red tinted windows and doors gave it a feeling that a very nice pony lived at the spot. Even trees were growing on one side of the house.
"This is the place." Twilight walked up to the red door, then paused as she stared at the wood, as if she were trying to look through it.
After what felt like a minute, Spike looked up at her. "Come on Twilight; what are you waiting for?" he poked and prodded at the purple pony. Sure, he wasn't more eager than she was to meet this pony again, but they were already there. It was like a shot; painful at first, but once it was done, then it was all over with.
"Spike, in case you forgot, let me remind you. I'm the one that stopped his plans of taking over Canterlot, and probably all of Equestria. Plus, he's absolutely cruel and heartless; he even struck his own brother in a huge fit of rage! What pony DOES that?!"
Before Spike could reply, the sound of locks could be heard on the other side of the door. The door creaked away from Twilight to reveal a gray colored pony with a short black mane and tail. Mystery, the pony that had turned into a dark pony, was now face to face with the one that stopped his reign- Twilight.
"Let's just get this over with." Twilight didn't care if Mystery heard her comment or not. "You know me, and I know you. I'm here to help you get your mark. The sooner we get through with this, the sooner we can never see each other again."
Mystery closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm aware you are here to assist me. Celestia informed me of this as I moved in. I took the liberties of preparing you this." Mystery reached just beyond the door and pulled out a sheet of paper rolled up like toilet paper. The sheet rolled down and past Twilight's hooves, aiming right into town. "This is a list of things I've done." He said with his mouth holding part of the paper.
"Things you've done to get your cutie mark?" Twilight was astounded for once. The pony had actually done quite a few things that weren't violent.
"Yes; everything from teaching Aardvark how to tap dancing to Zodiac Zoology." He replied casually.
"Aardvark…tap dancing?" Spike commented as he raised a brow up to the gray pony. He couldn't even imagine it.
"It's complicated," Mystery simply stated. "Now, see if you can find something that I haven't done. If you can find a better teacher for the job too, then do it." He was straightforward about the whole subject. He loathed mentioning how his rear indeed had not a single mark on it.
"Fine with me." Twilight's horn glowed as she took the paper from the gray pony's mouth and began to read it. "I don't see 'cooking' on this list," She stated outright, thankfully she didn't need to look that far down to see it was missing in an alphabetical list.
"Tried it once in school for a bit and didn't count it, wasn't really my thing."
Twilight rolled up the paper with her magic and set it down in front of Mystery's doorstep. "Still need to try it for longer than THAT. I know the perfect pink pony to help you out with it too. You just have to promise to behave."
"Celestia has stated that I do what you ask," Mystery said rolling his eyes. "Unless you tell me to go steal hay from a filly, I'll behave."
"Full of good ideas already." Twilight lowered her head and ears. "Let's go."
Before they left, Spike looked up at Mystery. “Hey, didn’t you have wings?” the dragon asked, curiously.
Twilight didn’t want to be with this pony longer than she had to, but Spike had a point. Mystery’s pitch black wings were gone! “Where did they go?” she outright added to Spike’s question.
“The wings were…obtained with magic that is considered illegal.” Mystery turned away from the pair to hide what emotion he might bring. “Celestia told me to never use such magics again and removed the wings.”
“Harsh,” Spike said quietly.
“Deserving.” Twilight closed her eyes and hid her emotions just as well as Mystery.
“How kind of you to care, Twilight,” Mystery turned back to her and closed his own eyes. “I’m sure you’ll be able to help me a lot.”
Spike stood between the two ponies, both of their eyes closed and not showing a sign of emotion, a sign of caring for each other in any way, shape, or form. “This is going to be a LONG day.” Spike groaned.
Mystery, Spike, and Twilight went into Ponyville together as a group. Each of them walking slowly with Twilight and Spike both behind Mystery, eying the gray pony to make sure he didn't try anything on them.
Mystery briefly glanced back to see Twilight's half-eyed stare directed right to him and her head low. "Twilight, you look like you're ready to toss me into an Ursa Major's cave. I said I wouldn't do anything without your orders."
"Think it means I still trust you?" Twilight's eyes leered right up to Mystery's own emotionless expression. She had no reason to believe this unicorn wouldn’t try something.
Mystery simply shrugged and continued his pace as they all stepped across the bridge into Ponyville.
Shortly after, the group ran across a light green pony with pure white hair and a shovel for a mark. The green pony stopped in her tracks and eyed the group; mostly staring at Mystery up and down. "You're…you're…Mystery?" the pony asked quietly.
"What of it?" Mystery shot back a cold response. He was in no mood to discuss anything with any pony. Then again, he probably never had been in such sort of mood.
"You are!" The pony suddenly dashed to a nearby restaurant and opened up the doors. "Listen up! The pony that nearly destroyed Canterlot is here! We need to get him before he gets us! Come on every pony!"
"How does she…" Twilight's eyes were wide with shock. But then it hit her like a pile of bricks. "Pinkie Pie."
"The blabbermouth, I remember her." Mystery said calmly as he watched the one pony at the restaurant. “Surely she couldn’t have told the entire town. Could she?”
Sure enough, other ponies left the restaurant to find Mystery not far off from it, simply standing and watching. At first, a few of the ponies looked intimidated. The green one though, wasn’t going to take this sitting down. “Come on! We outnumber him easily! Let’s all get him!” she shouted as she tried to rally the pony’s strength, as if preparing them for war. The ponies shouted back to her before they all shot Mystery an angry glare. “Charge!” the green pony leader declared. Soon, all the ponies that left the restaurant were rushing directly towards Mystery.
Mystery couldn’t quite count how many ponies there were from where he was, but there was at least ten of them! There was only one thing he could think of to do. "Well Twilight." he glanced at the purple pony. "I've told you countless times that I have to do what you say. I must make a request though; could you please ask me to run away in terror?"
Twilight lowered her composure. Her head, her eyelids, even her ears dropped as she looked away from the gray pony. "Run away in terror," she said with a groan.
Mystery suddenly smiled for once. He nodded with a grin on his face. "Thank you." With that, his expression changed. His mouth dropped open and his eyes were wide with fear as he turned around and darted back out of Ponyville with the angry mob chasing right after him.
Twilight let the mob chase after the gray pony as she made her way into Pinkie's shop. "Pinkie!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Suddenly a pink pony hopped down the steps, hopping down every other step with a happy face. "Yes?" Pinkie Pie asked innocently, her hair bouncing with her hops.
"You didn't HAPPEN to tell the whole town about the incident at Canterlot, did you?"
"Oh don't be silly! Not even I can spread news that fast," Pinkie said with a giggle. "No. I told Lyra, and then I told Bon Bon and Lyra told Cheerilee, then they told other ponies, and then they kept telling more and more about it and soon the whole town knew!"
"She is well known for spreading news." Spike cut in suddenly as she traveled beside Twilight, though he didn't want to say anything. Mostly because he figured the mob chasing after Mystery was quite well deserved.
"Well Pinkie, the princess told me that I need to help Mystery earn his mark. He hasn't done cooking and I wanted you to help him out with that."
Pinkie suddenly halted her hopping in mid-air, floating briefly before touching the ground gently. She blinked a few times and tilted her head. "I don't know Twilight. He lied to me about cake. It’s hard to forgive anyone that lies about cake."
"Do it for me." Twilight didn't want to beg, but she didn't want to disappoint the princess either by not doing anything. "If he starts to act suspicious, I'll be nearby to help you out."
"Well…" Pinkie raised a hoof to her chin and looked to be deep in thought for what Twilight would swear would be the first time in the pink pony's life that she had ever done such a thing. "Okay! But you kind of have to get him here without the angry mob."
Twilight nodded. "Leave that to me."
Later that day, Twilight returned to the bakery without Spike. Instead, she had a pony that was wrapped in a black robe to cover its entire body. The pony reached a gray hoof up and pulled back the hood once they were in the shop to reveal a gray horn, black mane, and the gray head. It was Mystery.
"I can't breathe in that thing." Mystery said taking deep breaths shortly after revealing his head. "Now, where is she?"
"Right here!" Pinkie suddenly replied from behind the counter. On the other side of the swinging doors leading to the back kitchen she had taken the liberty of pulling out a variety of cooking utensils after hearing she was getting an 'honored' guest. "Now, you're not going to try anything funny on me?" Pinkie gave Mystery 'the look' with one of her eyes; staring Mystery down to the ground.
"Nothing." Mystery leaned to the ground and stepped back seeing Pinkie's large eye. Such a ‘look’ was effective on almost anything.
"Pinkie Pie promise?" the pink pony asked as her large open eye continued to stare down Mystery.
"What's a…Pinkie Pie promise?" Mystery tilted his head to one side and quirked a brow.
Twilight decided to cut in and explain it. "It's a special promise that you can't break. You have to say 'Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.' To promise her you won't do anything."
"That's the most…ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Mystery regained his pose and looked away from Pinkie. He closed his eyes as his head faced the floor. "I'm not doing it."
"Promise me! Or I'm NOT helping you!" Pinkie suddenly shouted in an angry tone. She wanted Mystery to be honest to her and keep it.
"As long as you're not going to do anything besides cooking Mystery; what's the harm in making a promise that you won't do anything suspicious?" Twilight paused. "Or…ARE you going to do something?"
Mystery just sighed at first. He wanted to get his mark, but getting the help of other ponies was already sounding like a crazy idea. Twilight still didn't show much like for him, and this other pony, Pinkie, was sounding absolutely insane. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." He finally said as he looked away from the pink pony.
Pinkie suddenly giggled. Her ‘look’ vanished from her face as she hopped happily again. "There you go! Alright Twilight, I'll call you if anything comes up."
"Good. I check back on you two in a few minutes." Twilight turned and left the store with Spike, leaving only the gray and pink pony together.
Pinkie led Mystery into the back kitchen. There was one up front, but she figured it was best to keep the pony out of view of others, lest she wanted to start another angry mob.
Mystery followed her into the kitchen and glanced around at the various cooking ingredients and utensils that had been laid out for him. "Where do I start?"
Pinkie moved right beside Mystery and led him to a cookbook placed beside an open window. "Read the ingredients, put them in the bowl, and bake," she said getting a happy tune in her throat. "All you have to do is mix some flour and vanilla." she started to sing in a very bouncy tune.
Mystery stuffed his hoof in her open mouth. "Don't. Start. Singing. I'll go by what the book says." He shut his eyes with his still emotionless expression. He was in no mood to hear a song.
"Mmphmfmph!" Pinkie stepped back and pulled his hoof out of her mouth. "Okey dokey!" It was then that her ears perked up at the sound of a bell. "Oh! A customer! I'll handle it. You get to work on the pie." With that, the happy pony left the kitchen to leave Mystery to work on his own in the back kitchen.
Mystery took off his black robe and tossed it aside as a small smile grew onto his face. He was glad to be rid of such a thing, and much happier that he wasn’t going to be hearing a song. Then he walked over to the book and took a quick look at it. "Going by a book." Mystery glanced at the first ingredient. His horn glowed as a few eggs lifted up in the air with a magical gray aura around them. "Easier than a spell book so I'm sure I can do it." The eggs flew above a bowl and Mystery placed the eggs directly in it, shell included. "Two eggs." He actually felt a bit proud as he looked over at the bowl away from the window.
A sudden gust of wind blew in the window and forced the cookbook to turn a few pages. Mystery glanced back; completely unaware of what had happened. "Four cups of flour." He turned away from the book again and used his magic to raise a small bag of flour and a measuring cup, measuring the flour. As he worked with the ingredient, the book flipped a few more pages and he glanced back again as the flour was dumped into the bowl. "Milk…" he mumbled and added the ingredient, one by one he added each ingredient. Mystery was completely unaware whenever the book turned to a different page and displayed a different recipe. The book never had pictures, and he didn't pay much attention to what the previous ingredients to it were; just the current ones.
"Place in oven at…five hundred degrees?" Mystery checked and double checked the temperature. Even for a pie, it seemed like an awfully high temperature. He shrugged and mixed the ingredients, dumping them into a pie pan was completely overflowing with what he had mixed in.
Mystery just sighed and placed the pan as it was into the oven and walked out of the kitchen. He noticed Pinkie was with another pony he had never seen that, upon the pony seeing the sight that had left the kitchen, shrieked and left. "I can sure make a good impression on other ponies." Mystery's first comment was his eyes rolled.
"You just need to be nice to them and they'll be nice to you." Pinkie turned to Mystery with a grin on her face. "How's the pie going?"
"It's in the oven baking at five hundred degrees now." Mystery glanced back at the kitchen before back at her. "As for being nice to other ponies? Hah. You're funny Pinkie." He had a mock in his tone as his face, not once, smiled at her.
"Five hundred? That pie only required four-twenty-five," Pinkie giggled. She ignored his other comment about being nice to others. He would learn eventually, even if she had to help him with that too.
"The directions said five…" Mystery paused for a moment and took a brief look in the kitchen and at the oven. He saw what looked like an enormous light brown blob growing in it. His eyes widened and he turned to Pinkie. "Duck." He pulled his whole body to the ground and covered his head with his hooves.
"Not duck, pie!" Pinkie said with another giggle at the end. Suddenly there was an explosion in the kitchen as the brown pie mix forced the oven doors open with the pressure large enough to even force the double doors open. In mere seconds, the whole kitchen and store went from very clean, to being covered in pie mix. The force strong enough to send part of the mix through what open windows the store had.
Twilight wasn't far off from the bakery. Upon hearing a small explosion, she raced to the bakery to find that everything was covered in light brown goo. "What happened here?" she shouted and noticed a goo covered pony. It didn't have a horn, so it could have only been one other pony. "Where's Mystery?"
Mystery rose up from beside Pinkie, dripping with some goo on top of him like Pinkie, though since he had ducked, the lower half of him was somewhat clean. "Present." He simply stated.
Pinkie looked at Mystery briefly and rolled on her back laughing. "You look so funny, Mystery! Covered in pie! I know we're going to be really good friends!"
Mystery's blue eyes rolled as he picked up a glob of pie and hit Pinkie's face dead center. "I don't think cooking is my thing." He glanced back at Twilight. "What else is there?"
Twilight sighed at the gray pony. "First, you're going to help us clean up this mess. I noticed you don't have tailoring on your list either so we're going to take you to a different pony when we're done with this."
After the whole mess at the bakery had been cleaned up, Twilight took Mystery to Rarity's house. Mystery was covered up in his robe again and mumbling about how hot it was and how it was so hard to breathe. Twilight simply ignored the pony's comments.
Once they entered Rarity's house, Rarity smiled at the two of them. "Hello, Twilight. Who is your friend there?" she couldn't tell who it was under the robes as she tried to take a peek underneath from a distance.
Mystery simply raised his head, his eyes giving off a dull expression as he looked at the frightened pony. "This one is going to teach me about clothing? She seems more appropriate to teach others about jumping." He said giving off no expression of happiness. Instead it was more of mockery.
Twilight gave a frustrated sigh. She knew that some of her friends would not take this as easy as Pinkie did. "Right…Rarity, come down and let's talk. One on one." She called up to the unicorn.
Rarity nodded, but it was Twilight's magic that had to bring the pony down off the rafters without hurting herself, floating her gently to the ground. Once there, Twilight and Rarity huddled over near a corner and began whispering to each other out of Mystery's hearing range. Sure, he could pick up a few things if he wiggled his ears the right way, but for the most part it was barely audible and coming out in hushes. At least until he heard Rarity scream. "You what?" before Twilight nodded and went back to their hushes.
Mystery half rolled his eyes. He glanced over at one of Rarity's desks that held a mirror on top of it with a variety of sewing and knitting supplies seemingly haphazardly arranged on it. He reached forward to touch the supplies; but Rarity raised her head higher than Twilight's own body and eyed Mystery.
"Don't touch that." Rarity called out loud enough to make the gray pony pull back his hooves.
Some more time passed and the two unicorns finally broke up their conversation and Rarity approached Mystery. "I've agreed to help you out with your little…problem." Rarity recalls how offended the pony gets at the mention of not having a mark on his flank. "Come upstairs with me and I'll get you started." Rarity turned around and walked up to the staircase, turning back to Mystery to see if he was following.
Mystery glanced at Twilight briefly, seeing a nod coming from her before he turned back and followed Rarity upstairs and to a separate room that held a variety of different sewing and knitting supplies. "Am I actually going to be allowed to touch these things?" Mystery asked sarcastically as he looked over at a pin cushion.
"Yes, but do use your horn." Rarity replied as her own horn turned a light blue. The pin cushion glowed lightly as a needle plucked out from it. The cushion was then gently set down as the pin went up in the air past the gray pony's blue colored eyes. The needle went through a thread and, before any pony knew it, she was in the process of crafting a blue scarf. She used the crochet hook, and fabric, along with a pattern seemingly effortlessly together. "Making outfits is a complicated process that takes time, and dedication, to get the gist of it down. You simply follow what I'm doing and go by a pattern." She set the scarf on top of a pony shaped mannequin as she worked the cloth.
"Connect the dots?" Mystery asked, watching the pony curiously. It didn't look too difficult- though getting the thread through the needle looked like a precise procedure. Still, he was one to pay attention to detail.
"A little more complex than that." Rarity faced away from him and rolled her eyes at such a comparison. "I'll let you try it though." She stepped back to reveal the blue scarf wrapped around the pony. "Perfect. You saw how I made this, didn't you?"
Mystery nodded with his eyes wide. Rarity made the process look so easy and quick; he was sure he could do it just as well as she could!
"Alright then, I'll just…step back and watch." Rarity stepped back for sure, all the way to the door in fact. She was nervously smiling at Mystery with just as nervous of a giggle. She didn't know what the gray unicorn would do.
Mystery took a breath. His horn turned a light gray as well as a pin from the pin cushion. He plucked the pin from the cushion and rose up an orange colored thread- putting it through the needle and beginning to work the fabric with it as well as the crochet hook. He was going by the same pattern that Rarity had used, although his results were…different to say the least. In fact, his own orange colored scarf had mismatched lengths on the ends, various holes, and the minute Mystery tried it on to 'show it off' to Rarity by putting it on him, it suddenly turned back into nothing more than string strangled around his own neck. "Aah!" he cried out.
"Eh eh…it…it takes time." Rarity was trying to find some way to comfort the pony. She was still nervous about him. Now though, she was nervous to find out how he could make things more hideous than that.
"Time, shmime." Mystery huffed. "I'm going to make a good looking outfit yet!" he dropped the fabric around his neck, after untangling it, and walked over to a mannequin that had a pattern of a dress around it. "Get me a book, some fabric, and thirty minutes."
Rarity didn't know how to respond at first. "You really want to jump into it, don't you?" she gave a small nod and her horn shined again. A book suddenly came into the room, along with various pieces of fabric that he would require, as well as the materials. She figured what harm could it do to give him the materials to try out? She could always replace the fabric. "Do take your time."
It was more than thirty minutes later when Mystery had finally finished his outfit. By now, Rarity had left him to do craft other things. "I still think Twilight has gone insane to help this pony," she said to herself as her horn shined and fabric flew in the air with the same color as her horn. "At least it sounds like he's trying. Still, he's so...so-"
Before Rarity could finish her sentence, there was a cough at the door in the room she was in. The gray pony stood by it with his emotionless expression. "I'm done," He said with a small nod.
"Oh? Let's see how you did then." Twilight set a pink colored dress she had in the making down before following Mystery back to the first room she had left him in. "Don't be ashamed if you didn't do it quite right though, as I've said, it takes a lot of time to master the art."
Mystery sighed with another nod and opened the door. He had placed what he had tried to craft, a tuxedo placed on a mannequin pony in the room. "What do you think? Be honest." He had to get an honest opinion if he were to ever improve after all- even if it was absolutely terrible.
Rarity glanced into the room to see the tuxedo that was dead center in the room. She stared at it for a minute as her eyes grew large, her pupils shrunk, and her jaw dropped. Then, she raised a hoof to her head and fell to the ground in an overly dramatic faint.
"I knew you'd like it!" Mystery said happily. She could have only been so excited with his result that she fainted with joy!
Rarity awoke a short time later with Twilight overlooking her, the door to Mystery's tuxedo shut and Mystery himself no longer visible to her. "Are you alright?" Twilight asked, shaking Rarity gently.
"Oh Twilight," Rarity cried out suddenly and hugged her front legs with her eyes shut and tears streaming down her face. "It was horrible! It was just so horrible!"
"What?" Twilight looked down at Rarity with a surprised look on her face. She tried to pull her hooves back, but it was no use. Rarity was proving to be very strong. "What's horrible? What did he do to you?"
"That tuxedo!" Rarity cried out again. "It's the most…most…monstrous thing I've ever seen! There is NOTHING more hideous than that abomination in that very room!"
Twilight frowned. Her ears dropped and her eyes leered. "Really, that's it?" she muttered. How bad could it have been? She opened the door to the room to see the tuxedo to get a look at the monster. Similar to Rarity's reaction, for nearly a minute Twilight just stared. Her eyes growing and her pupils shrinking with her jaw agape. After that good minute, she slammed the door using her magic horn. "How did…"
"I know!" Rarity cried out, as if knowing what the purple unicorn was going to tell her.
"Does he really think ponies have THAT many heads? And hooves?" Twilight had to ask. She knew Rarity wouldn't know the answer to it though. She was right about how the tuxedo looked at least. For once, she couldn't blame Rarity's overreacting.
"Twilight." Rarity finally released her hooves and stood up, wiping her tears. "I have to move. I can't live anywhere near that horrid beast. It's absolutely insane to think anyone could stand within five miles of that thing."
"I don't think Mystery is THAT bad." Twilight paused- did she just stand up for a pony that nearly destroyed Canterlot? Maybe she was the insane one.
Rarity shook her head. "I mean the tuxedo! As for that pony that made it, I'm going to need him to come back hundreds of times a day to teach him how to properly make an outfit! No…thousands of times a day!"
Twilight gave a frustrated sigh and another angry look away from Rarity. "I'll tell him to get rid of the tuxedo so you can stay in Ponyville, alright?"
Rarity nodded as tears continued forming in her eyes. "Oh please do. You have no idea…I can't even think of that thing again without fainting!"
Twilight went downstairs to where Mystery waited patiently, looking over at the exit. Mystery turned around to Twilight with a small smile on his face. "So, am I going to be a tailor?" Mystery had to ask.
Twilight merely shook her head. "You're going to get up there and get rid of that tuxedo. Then, you're going to come with me to see if you can take care of some farm work with a certain orange pony. First though, you are going to tell me how you think a pony has three heads?"
"Um…aerodynamics?" Mystery squeaked nervously. Seeing Twilight shake her head though, he sighed deeply. Tailoring was a complete disaster. Hopefully her next idea would work out.
"I don't know Twilight," an orange pony with a cowboy hat on her head said to the purple unicorn. Together, the two of them stood nearby watching Mystery eye one of Sweet Apple Farm's apple trees curiously. "You darn know well what he did to our friends- and to us! Why are you trying to help him out?"
"Celestia is telling me to forgive and forget," Twilight explained to Applejack. "I don't get why either. If the princess can do it though, then I can try too." Twilight still found it difficult to think of Mystery as any sort of friend. "I mean…he hasn't tried to harm any pony." though she spoke as if she were trying to comfort herself more than Applejack.
"If you say so Twilight," Applejack said with a sigh. "You already told me what he did with Pinkie and Rarity. It sounds like he at least has the best intentions so I'm willing to give it a try. One screw up though and I'll hog tie him up faster than you can say 'Equestria.'"
Twilight nodded with a frown on her face. "Okay. I have to write up a report to the princess about what we've been doing so far, but I'll be back shortly." Twilight turned and left the farm and let Applejack and Mystery together.
Applejack approached Mystery, who was looking at an apple in his hoof. "Alright Mystery, you're working under MY hoof now!" Applejack suddenly called out from behind the pony.
Mystery jumped in fright. The apple fell from his hoof and he spun to face Applejack with his front lowered, and his eyes in a leer before he realized it was only Applejack. "Right." he regained his composure just as quickly as he had lost it. “What am I doing here? Cleaning out the stables?" he asked, mockingly.
"If you WANT to clean out the cow stables then you can. I'm sure Big Mac won't mind having the extra help." Applejack suddenly shot back teasingly.
Mystery was astounded someone was able to make a comeback right at him for once. "I'll pass. What did you have in mind for me instead of stable work?"
"Well, you look like a strong pony." Applejack walked over to a different tree across from Mystery. "One main thing we do here is collect apples. You just give a tree a good kick." She demonstrated by raising her rear legs up in the air horizontally. She moved them back and suddenly rushed her hooves forward and slammed into the tree. The tree shook for a moment before suddenly every single apple on top plummeted to the waiting baskets on the ground. "And down come the apples. Think you can do it?" She looked down at her work before back up at Mystery with a smile on her face.
"Looks easier than baking and tailoring," Mystery commented as he watched the earth pony. He did indeed think it was easy, though he couldn't keep underestimating the jobs he was being given. "So just a good kick…" The pony raised his rear legs and kicked the nearby tree with all of his might.
The tree shook slightly before suddenly all of the leaves on it came crashing down on top of Mystery. Not a single apple dropped from its branches- merely every single one of its leaves, covering Mystery completely in the greenery.
Applejack watched with her eyes wide, unable to help but break a smile after seeing Mystery's very serious tone with the tree. "Try it again, kick it differently this time," Applejack instructed Mystery. "And take it easier too! It's not a terrible thing if this isn't your calling after all."
"Pardon me for thinking that kicking a tree wouldn't make me look like a bush." Mystery shook his body rapidly which sent the leaves flying in a variety of directions. Then he looked at the same tree he kicked, now clear of any signs of green on it. "At least leaves won't fall off of it this time." He grumbled and kicked the tree with his hind legs again. This time, the tree simply shook, not dropping even a single apple.
"Kick it harder," Applejack shouted. "Don't be afraid to really put your muscle behind it!"
Mystery didn't acknowledge her comment. The next kick though was, indeed harder. Not enough to bring any apples down though.
"Faster!" Applejack shouted.
With another swift, hard kick from Mystery, still the apples stuck on the trees firmly. It was as if they were glued onto the branches they stuck on.
"Stronger!"
Stronger? How the hay…I guess I could try THAT spell. Mystery thought to himself. His horn glowed briefly as his rear legs suddenly beefed up in muscle mass; growing to at least one and a half times their normal size and filled with nothing but muscle. He raised his muscle-bound legs and kicked the tree as hard, and as fast, as he possibly could. It looked like nothing had happened even after doing that!
The tree Mystery kicked didn't lose its apples, instead the entire tree itself separated from the ground and tilted to the side, taking its roots with it. The tree then fell completely over onto another tree to cause a chain reaction just like dominoes of tree after tree knocking each other down. Applejack's and Mystery's eyes both watched in unison as, one by one, the trees on the farm fell. The trees tilted left or right seemingly on their own to cause the closest one to fall, even going behind the two ponies to obliterate the trees!
Applejack just stared blankly afterwards. Her eyes were huge and her mouth was dropped agape. She couldn't believe what she had just seen. This…pony had single hoofedly destroyed half of the farm!
Mystery though, looked uncaring. He walked over to the nearest tree and plucked the apple by the top and put it on one of his front hooves, walking back to Applejack with the apple in hoof. "Got the apples down," He said casually.
Applejack's pupils were the only things that moved to see the apple Mystery had plucked. She stared at it momentarily before clenching her teeth and shifting her pupils to Mystery. Her face turned beet red and steam literally came out of her ears.
"I'm telling you Twilight, that guy can't be good for Ponyville!" Spike spoke up to Twilight as he rode on her back. "If he did something so terrible it would make Rarity move out; then, I don't want him living here!"
Twilight was on her way back to Applejack to see what was going on. "Rarity was overreacting, Spike." Twilight paused. "Well…" she started walking again. "For the most part. The problem is taken care of though and she's staying here. Besides, it's not like Mystery TRIED to make such a terrible thing."
"The way you described it though with so many legs…" Spike looked where Twilight was traveling. His eyes squinted. "Isn't that him?" he asked with a point of his claw.
Sure enough, Mystery was running right to Twilight. Not only did he run to her, he ran PAST her. As he was running, multiple apples were being thrown in his direction and aiming right for the gray pony, zooming past Twilight fast enough to cause her mane to blow in the direction the apple traveled.
"Dangknabbit you bucktoothed fish faced coward! When I get a hold of you, I'm going to stuff an apple in you where the sun don't shine!" an angry voice cried out from beyond the hill. Applejack suddenly appeared with a basket full of apples in one hoof. Her eyes were focused on Mystery as she reached in the basket with another hoof and tossed more apples aimed right at him.
"Applejack!" Twilight ran over to her and placed her hooves on top of Applejack's own to stop her from tossing apples. "What happened?!"
"That darn skin-livered son of an upside down bunny destroyed half our crop!" It was difficult to understand what most of what the orange pony was even saying, but at least it made enough sense for Twilight.
"He WHAT?" Twilight shot a glance at the gray pony that was nearly out of sight by now. "How did he do THAT?"
"Some confounded magic I suppose," Applejack said with a huff. "Twilight, I don't know nothing about magic, but I know that you can't grow trees in a day! Especially how many he ended up knocking down! He needs to come back and help out!"
Twilight nodded. "I can talk to him about it. I must know though, do you think he really did this on purpose?" Twilight recalled Pinkie's shop and Rarity's situation. Both of them were bad in a sense, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with time.
"I…" Applejack sighed and looked down at her rear hooves. "Don't think so. I told him to kick it harder and he knocked one tree down and it started this whole darn chain. I suppose I overreacted a mite…" she paused. "He's STILL going to help me though if he likes it or not!"
The purple pony nodded again. "I'd stick around to help you AJ, but I should find him before he causes more trouble somehow." She did feel bad for her, but she had someone to help out. "Spike, help her out please," She said, dashing off after Mystery before Spike could even say a word.
"Hey! I don't get a say in this?" Spike shouted as he turned to see Twilight already leaving. With a frustrated sigh, he turned to Applejack. "Alright, where do I start?"
Mystery ran and ran, he continued running straight into town. He didn’t as much as glance back to see if he was still being chased. “The bunny rabbits is coming! The bunny rabbits is coming!” he shouted, as if he were a poor version of Paul Revere.
Suddenly Twilight appeared in a puff of purple colored smoke in front of Mystery, forcing his running to turn into a screeching halt, stopping just inches of her. “First, I had Applejack and Fluttershy divert the bunnies away from Ponyville at least a mile back. Second…’bunny rabbits IS coming?’ We REALLY need to work on your grammar skills, in addition to everything else you’ve done wrong today!”
“I was being chased by a bunch of furious little tiny white things with huge, sharp teeth. If I had TIME to correct what I was shouting out, I WOULD.” Mystery barked rather defensively. “You haven’t seen the bones!”
“Bones?” Twilight tilted her hear and quirked a brow. “What are you talking about?”
Mystery looked down for a moment. His hooves kicked the dirt road he traveled on lightly. “Um...okay I guess there aren’t any.” He raised his head and turned around to see that not a soul was chasing after him. He took the time to see that not one pony in Ponyville even cared for what he had shouted in town. “It’s nice to see that no one even cared for what I shouted anyways.”
“If the ponies had a reason to trust you in the first place. Like say, NOT causing a particularly prodigious pie mess, NOT design a disaster of a dress that could distraught even Derpy, NOT tackling down tons of trees, and oh yeah, NOT CARELESSLY coveting a cutie mark.” Twilight snapped at the unicorn.
Mystery stood still as Twilight went on her angry rampage. He merely blinked each time she said the word ‘not’ to him. “Are you finished?” he asked her. “What’s next on the list?”
“I’m starting to think that this is a waste of both of our times.” Twilight mumbled under her breath, and then she spoke up. “I can hardly think of anything else for you to do that wouldn’t cause some sort of catastrophe in the process.”
“Who are you yelling to now, Twilight?” a voice suddenly called out from above. The two unicorns looked up to see a blur of a rainbow trail left in the sky. The blur flew past them, did a quick turn, and landed beside the pair. It was a pegasus pony. Her light blue wings folded up and she turned to Mystery.
“Rainbow Dash.” Mystery turned his head to the side, acting uncaring at how this pony had just showed off.
Rainbow Dash jumped back next to Twilight. Her rainbow colored mane and tail in a mess, much like Mystery’s own. “What is HE doing here?” she shouted suddenly as angry as Twilight had been. She remembered that day as well as any other pony would have. “He cheated on that race! That’s unforgivable!”
“You don’t seem to recall that day well,” Mystery simply replied, turning to Rainbow Dash. “I never said that you would WIN by going through the clouds I marked.”
“I think it should be OBVIOUS that the first one to the finish line wins!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she suddenly pressed her face against Mystery’s own. Her eyes glaring and her teeth bore. Her eyes glanced briefly away from Mystery’s to see that he lacked wings now. Instead, the stitch shaped hide marks laid there. “You deserved to have your wings removed!”
“Exactly, you think it should be obvious. You really should learn to listen with your ears once in awhile.” It was only a short time ago that another pegasus tried to pin him down. Fluttershy was actually very intimidating, he couldn’t place why. This one though, this rainbow pony, he didn’t feel threatened at all. “As for my wings, I got them with forbidden magic. Celestia removed them before sending me here. She said I’m to never have wings again, even using legitimate methods.”
“Enough you two,” Twilight moved between the two ponies and shoved them away from each other. “Rainbow Dash, he’s trying to earn his cutie mark and I’m trying to help him. We’ve had no luck in anything. Do you think you can help him out with something?”
“Why?” Rainbow Dash flew up into the air, crossed her front hooves and turned her head with closed eyes. “After everything he did, why help him?”
“It’s a long story,” Twilight mumbled. Mystery was nothing short of being a pain in the hooves for her, but she couldn’t disobey the princess. She could only get so far by saying that it was a favor towards her.
“The sooner you help me, the sooner I don’t have to speak to any of you ponies again,” Mystery suddenly gave an answer for her. “We’ve had our differences, but Celestia’s orders are orders. Even if you only try one thing for me, it’s at least an attempt that we can honestly tell her about.”
Rainbow Dash barely had to give it any thought. She unquestionably was loyal to Celestia. “Alright, but I’m only helping you out with a few things. And I want to start with a rematch! Another race! No magic and the first one to the goal will win, deal?”
“What do I have to lose,” Mystery shrugged and looked over to Twilight. “Care to teleport yourself a good distance away from us then, and give the starting signal?”
Twilight gave a small nod as she teleported, yet again, a good distance away from the pair. She was no more than a few blocks away as she traced a line on the ground using her hoof. “Ready?!” she shouted from the far end.
Both Mystery and Rainbow Dash stood side by side. The pair faced the direction Twilight was with their front halves lowered. Rainbow Dash nodded to Twilight with a leer in her eyes and a grin on her face. Finally, she was going to get a fair race to see just who was faster.
“Go!” Twilight shouted at the top of her lungs. Her horn glowed and a flag appeared from nowhere in front of her face. The flag waved repeatedly in front of her as she gave as many signs to start the race as she possibly could.
Rainbow Dash lived up to her name by dashing off and leaving nothing more than a cloud of dust and a rainbow streak behind her. She paid no attention to what was behind her, merely in front of her. It seemed that, just as soon as she had started the race, she had crossed the finish line and came to a screeching halt. She turned around and opened her wings proudly. She stuck out her chest and closed her eyed as a hoof struck her chest. “What do you think of THAT, Mystery?” she said with a grin on her face.
After not hearing a response for a moment, Rainbow Dash opened her eyes to see that Mystery was still at the starting line! He had barely crossed it with half of his body as he was making his way to the finish line. “What the…?” her pose failed her as her hooves hit the ground and she tilted her head with her eyes wide. “THAT’S how fast he can run?”
It felt like an eternity to Rainbow Dash for Mystery to finally reach the finish line. Comparing speeds, he was going only slightly faster than Twilight’s own running speed. “I’ll say it for you,” were the first words he stated. “Running isn’t my strong suit.”
“You can say THAT again. Whatever happened to being able to compete with me for speed? When you were that…thing…you looked like you were just as fast as me, if not faster. That doesn’t make any sense!”
“A dark pony’s strength, and speed, is raised based upon their negative emotions.” Mystery turned away from her. “And I have a lot to spare. You got your rematch though; think of something else to try.”
Rainbow Dash didn’t try to comprehend the concept of what exactly a ‘dark pony’ was, merely that he had been one at some point and they weren’t good. He didn’t seem to be bad now at the very least. “Alright let’s do one more thing. Twilight, stick with us please.”
Twilight understood what Mystery was talking about. She couldn’t believe that he had just that much negativity inside of him, and much less so much that this was his running speed! “Right,” She simply stated to Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash led Mystery and Twilight to the top of a large hill. She had it easy with wings while the two unicorns had to climb their way up to the top. “Hurry up you two!” She shouted down the hill to the ponies.
“We aren’t runners, and I can tell you that we aren’t climbers either,” Twilight grumbled. It felt as if she were almost travelling vertically upwards on top of the hill. Just behind her was the gray pony, Mystery.
“That was in the long list of things I showed you earlier, Twilight,” Mystery replied to her casually. Despite how much running and climbing he was doing, he was preserving his energy, much like Twilight did herself. “Rock climbing, hill climbing, tree climbing, Ursa Major climbing…”
“Climbing an Ursa Major? Sounds like fun,” Twilight looked away from Mystery as she rolled her eyes. How can a pony even climb such a huge thing?
“I don’t remember how it went actually.” Mystery raised his head as he tried to recall the memories of climbing the monsters. “It’s all a blank. I probably should have worn a helmet.”
“This explains a lot.” Twilight groaned as she made it to the top of the hill finally. Her frustration wasn’t caused by the climbing though.
Once the ponies made it to the top of the hill, Rainbow Dash flew up to the sky next to a white cloud. “Listen up, Mystery. Another thing I do around here, besides racing, is helping out with the weather. I just give the clouds a good ol kick.” She demonstrated by kicking the nearby cloud with one of her rear hooves, causing the cloud to break up and vanish before her very eyes. “Think you can do it?”
“Oh sure,” Mystery looked away from Rainbow Dash. “Just let me wait here for the clouds to get so low that I can kick them from here.”
“Magic,” Twilight said as she looked up at the sky over to another white cloud. “You can use magic to get rid of the clouds, too.”
“Fine I’ll try it.” Mystery’s horn started to glow a light gray and control the nearby floating cloud. The cloud began to glow in response and slowly started to move, bit by bit. It moved above Rainbow Dash before the cloud suddenly turned pitch black and a flash of lightning as a bolt struck her.
It felt like the entire world was a flash of yellow and black colors to Rainbow Dash as the lightning hit her. She could only make large twitches as the bolt struck until it finally stopped. She was covered in black spots and scratch marks after, her mane sticking up like a rainbow afro. “You dunderhead!” Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but shout to Mystery. “You get rid of the cloud! Not make it cause lightning!” she flew beside the cloud Mystery controlled and kicked it to try to send it away, only to get struck by lightning again in response.
Twilight sighed and used her own magic to return the cloud to its soft white puffy self to let Rainbow Dash kick it away easier. Twilight then turned to Mystery. “Try it again,” she said and used her magic again; suddenly an umbrella appeared above Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash kicked the cloud and took the umbrella. She lowered herself down to the hill and kept the umbrella over her head. “Thanks Twilight,” she said with her eyes on the purple umbrella. “No lightning is going to get me this time.” She used one hoof to hold the umbrella, and the other to fix her hair up.
Mystery ignored the two ponies as his horn began to glow once again. Another cloud slowly made its way over Rainbow Dash, a good distance from her, and started to turn pitch black, much like the first cloud. Another bolt of lightning made its way down to Rainbow Dash, turning ever so slightly to avoid the umbrella she held and strike her from the side.
Rainbow Dash’s body was starting to emit small black smoke at this point. Her mane was much darker, and sprang to its afro shape once again. The umbrella she had becoming nothing more than charred remains in her hoof. “What are you TRYING to do?!” Rainbow Dash shouted again. She was losing her patience but fast on Mystery. “Get rid of the clouds. Get rid of the clouds! Not strike me with lightning!”
“Rainbow Dash, calm down.” Twilight suddenly said. “Let’s try this one more time, but first, come with me down the hill for a moment.”
Rainbow Dash gave a frustrated sigh but nodded. Twilight used her magic to teleport herself down the hill and Rainbow Dash followed after easily.
“In there.” She said, tilting her head to what looked to be a small cave at the bottom of the hill. “There’s no way the lightning can strike you in there.”
“Good idea.” Rainbow Dash spoke as she worked on fixing her mane once again. “But if it does, then I give up.” She added as she made her way to the cave. Its entrance was small so she had to crawl to get in, but at least she would be safe!
Twilight teleported back up the hill shortly after taking care of Rainbow Dash. A thought hit her as to why she didn’t just teleport up the first time she climbed up with Mystery, but she got rid of the thought as she used her magic again to get rid of the cloud Mystery had tried to deal with. “One more,” she told him. “And there’s no WAY you can hit Rainbow Dash now.”
“Good to know,” Mystery replied. His tone made it hard to tell if he actually cared, or if he was even being sarcastic in the first place!
Mystery’s horn started to glow one more time as he used his own magic to grab another cloud. He didn’t even bother moving the cloud as he closed his eyes and started to strain. Sweat coming from his head as the cloud split in two.
“You’re doing it,” Twilight said, she was amazed, this was the first sign of progression he showed all day!
Suddenly the cloud combined back into one and turned black once more. A bolt of lightning made its way down for Twilight to watch. The bolt then suddenly made a large turn into a familiar cave. Twilight didn’t have to think twice about what the lightning was hitting in that cave. Her ears lowered and her eyes turned to a leer. “Let’s go, before Rainbow Dash comes out of here and wants to pummel YOU with lightning bolts.”
Twilight was getting frustrated. Everything she thought would, at worst, result in Mystery not getting a mark, ended up turning into a complete disaster. Every one of her friends had tried to help, and not one succeeded. “One more chance,” She said with her head and ears lowered. Her teeth gritted and her eyes in a leer. “There’s only one more thing I can possibly think of that you might be able to do, and I’m prepared for the worst of the worst to come up when you fail it.”
“I’m so glad you’re confident in my skills,” Mystery replied to her casually as the pair traveled in town. Mystery had his robe on again to prevent being noticed by the local ponies too.
“I’d be MORE confident if-“ Twilight paused as she approached the large tree that was her home. “You know what, we’ve already went through that. There’s nothing you have done today that hasn’t resulted in a complete disaster in one form or another.” Twilight opened the door to the vast amount of books on the shelves and Spike waiting for her.
“Hey Twilight,” Spike said with a smile. He was in the middle of some dusting as she came in, thankfully Applejack didn’t keep him all day. “How did Rainbow Dash go?” before he got an answer though; he noticed the other pony that accompanied her. He recalled who wore the robe earlier, and it could only have been the same pony. “That bad, huh?”
“Rainbow Dash got struck with lightning so many times that she can provide power to Ponyville for most of the day,” Twilight responded with a huff. “Mystery is getting one more chance here. I’m giving him a very simple task, one so simple that a rock could do it.”
“What is it?” Spike had to ask.
“He’s going to watch you. Dragon sit.”
“What?!” Spike’s jaw dropped. He had to reach down under his jaw and lift it back into place. “You’re kidding! You’ve seen everything that he’s done; you’ve told me everything he’s done. I don’t want to become Spike, the late dragon, because of him!”
“I’m going to be upstairs if you need me.” Twilight spoke as if Spike hadn’t said a word. She suddenly turned and made her way up the staircase, leaving Spike alone with Mystery.
Mystery eyed Spike momentarily. He remembered this dragon, but not as well as the other ponies for a reason he just couldn’t place. “I used to watch my brother all the time. It shouldn’t be difficult at all.” He turned away and glanced briefly at the door. “Although.” He glanced back at Spike. “He never spoke up if he was hungry. I could only take a guess when he was. Perhaps we should get food out of the way now, so we don’t have to worry about it later.”
Spike gulped as he backed against a bookshelf. “N-No really, I’m fine. I don’t need any food or anything. I can tell you when I’m hungry or need something.” Spike feared for the worst from this pony. What would he do to him? Why was Twilight insane enough to leave the two alone?!
“Nonsense.” Mystery’s horn glowed as Spike started to rise up off of the floor. His body floated into Twilight’s kitchen with Mystery casually strolling along behind it.
Twilight, in the meantime, was upstairs. She was reviewing logs she had written about that fateful day with Mystery, and about how today was going. She was starting to loathe the idea of spending any more time with this pony. “The minute he gets that mark,” she grumbled as she lied on the bed, writing down with a feathered pen using her magic. “He is out of here.”
As Twilight wrote down her notes, suddenly a loud crash was heard from downstairs, causing her pen to suddenly shift up and down rapidly as it wrote. Twilight dropped the pen and gave an angry shout. “What now?!” she ran down stairs just in time to see Spike running out of the kitchen. Spike was wearing, what looked like, a pink baby bonnet and a diaper with a hole just large enough for his tail. A pacifier stuck in his mouth as it looked like he was running for his life.
“I don’t eat salad! I don’t need a highchair, and I don’t wear baby clothes!” Spike shouted at the top of his lungs as he ran into a different room downstairs.
Mystery wasn’t far behind him, chasing the dragon with his horn glowing and a highchair floating just behind him as he followed him into the next room.
Twilight’s ears lowered as her eyes glared at the front door. She heard another crash just in time for her head to lower and to see Spike running again, wearing the exact same humiliating outfit as before.
"I don’t need a diaper change!” Spike cried out, running into another room as Mystery chased him. Mystery’s horn continued to glow as baby powder floated with him this time.
Twilight was saying absolutely nothing. She was doing absolutely nothing. She continued to stand on the staircase glaring at the door. What was Mystery doing to poor Spike?! She hesitated to get between the pair; just in case things, at least somehow, went better.
“No! NO!” Spike shouted and ran from the other room again. The sound of a drill could be heard as Mystery chased spike with a large yellow drill, carried and activated with his magic. Mystery himself was wearing a hockey mask now too, for some strange reason.
Now Twilight had enough. She used her own magic to teleport directly from the staircase in front of the masked Mystery, causing the pony to come to a halt. “What in Celestia’s name are you DOING?!” Twilight yelled at the top of her lungs. “What’s with the baby outfit? What’s with the drill? What is with the hockey mask?!”
Twilight’s eyes burned with anger. “That is IT! I’ve HAD it with you! I don’t know where you got the drill from, but I know a place where you can stick it!”
Mystery tilted his head, confused by her tone. “You have a cavity too?” he had to ask.
“NO!” Twilight said as she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Just forget it! Forget watching Spike, forget me helping you, and forget a cutie mark! Everything we’ve done today has ended up becoming nothing short of a complete and total disaster because of you! I don’t care what the princess says. I! GIVE! UP! ”
Mystery was quiet for a moment. The drill and mask vanished in a puff of gray smoke. He looked down briefly before glancing back at her. “You know everything on the list ended up turning into something like this. I can’t count how many enemies I’ve made by trying to get my mark. As it stands, angry mobs wait for me in nearly every town I’ve been in. I understand though, I’ll go pack my bags and head out.” With that, the pony turned and left Twilight’s home.
Twilight gave a frustrated sigh. Her eyes turned only briefly to see Spike come back to her side wearing the same humiliating outfit as before. “Is he gone?” the dragon had to ask.
“Yes. He’s gone, just like my chances of making Celestia happy are.” Twilight responded. She didn’t bother helping Spike out of his baby clothes; instead she immediately used her magic to get a blank parchment and a pen. “Dear Princess Celestia, it is with great regret that I write you this letter. I have been unable to assist Mystery getting his cutie mark. All of my friends have tried their hardest, only for Mystery to leave catastrophe as a result. From what it looks like, he intends to leave Ponyville on his own. I’m sorry I could not have been any help with earning his mark. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.” She spoke as she wrote the letter. The parchment then folded up and was put in front of Spike. “Send it.” She said, trying not to hold any regrets.
Spike scratched the top of his head for a moment before he agreed and sent the letter, blowing on it causing it to vanish in his hands. “I’m sorry, Twilight. You did your best, and I know that’s what Celestia wants.”
“I know Spike. Still, I wish I could have made her proud.” She looked up to the ceiling and then down at him. She suddenly broke into a small smile. “Let’s get those baby clothes off of you.”
“Finally!” Spike shouted happily. Before Twilight got a chance to get close though, his mouth suddenly became full as he belched up a parchment only moments after Twilight had sent her own.
“That was fast.” Twilight had to admit as she took the letter and unfolded it, reading it aloud. “To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, I believe you misunderstood the letter I sent earlier today. I didn’t ask you to help him with his cutie mark, I simply asked you to be his friend. You can likely already tell as to why he has no friends, and I want you to be the one to change that.”
Twilight was baffled. Being…friends with Mystery? That’s all she wanted? Could Twilight even do that? She had heard of all of the things Mystery had done, she had SEEN all of the things Mystery had done. Thinking back on it though, it was all in an attempt to earn a cutie mark. He didn’t harm anypony in the process, except maybe Rainbow Dash. Even Twilight could point out that the incident was nothing short of an accident. “His…friend. I have to get to him before it’s too late.” Twilight said and suddenly ran as fast as her hooves could take her, forcing the front door open. She had to get to Mystery.
“What about me?!” Spike shouted as Twilight left him alone once again. He stood still with his legs spread as suddenly the diaper he wore dropped down to his feet.
It took some time before Twilight reached Mystery’s house. She knocked on it as hard as her hooves could as her tongue hung out and she panted like an exhausted dog. She had never run that fast before in her life! “Mystery, open up!”
The door opened in only a short time as Mystery stood on the other side. Behind him, boxes were already packed and the living room looked bare of anything except a small couch. “What? I’m leaving. You don’t need to worry about me anymore.”
“Mystery,” Twilight spoke. “You…I…Celestia…” she decided it was best to give herself a moment to recover and regain her posture. “Look, I know we’ve had our differences, but I know that you’re trying your hardest to be the best pony you can be in Ponyville. I think we should take a break on the cutie marks and just be…you know…f…fri…” Twilight could hardly get the word out of her mouth. It wasn’t that she was out of breath; it was just hard for her to ever call this pony, the one that wrecked Canterlot, by that word.
“Friend?” Mystery finished her sentence. “Celestia is ordering you to, isn’t she?” he rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to be anyone’s friend when they’re forced to. I’ve got packing to do.”
“N-n…yes,” Twilight admitted. She couldn’t lie to him; it would only make the situation worse. “Celestia wants me to be your friend. After all you’ve done today; I was ready to have nothing to do with you too. I know you were only trying to get your cutie mark though. I know your intentions are at least in the right place. I want to try one more thing with you, one more thing that is not about a cutie mark.”
Mystery hesitated for a moment before giving a small nod. “Fine…” he said quietly.
Twilight gave a soft smile. “Good, wait here. I’m going to go gather up some ponies. I’ll be back.” Twilight got an idea in her head for him. She ran off just as quickly as she had arrived at his house, leaving the gray pony alone.
Some time later…
A large picnic table was set up just behind Mystery’s house with a red and white checkered sheet covering it. Applejack, Fluttershy, Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Spike, were all sitting there with Mystery at the far end. Most of the ponies were talking to each other and eating out of the three picnic baskets there while Mystery was mostly quiet.
Pinkie suddenly nudged Mystery. “What’s with all the silence down here?” she said, encouraging the pony to speak. The rest of the ponies quieted down a bit as they heard Pinkie speaking to Mystery.
Mystery looked to Pinkie. A smile didn’t even cross his face. “How can you all be so…happy? You don’t remember what I’ve done to all of you? Especially what I’ve done today?”
“Yeah, but we know you’re a different pony now!” Pinkie said and suddenly hugged Mystery from behind. “You’re MY friend for being so funny! I still remember all of that pie goo!”
“And…I guess it takes a…unique pony to make such an outfit.” Rarity added as she looked to Mystery. She didn’t even want to recall what it looked like. “Anypony that unique has to have some qualities about him that I want to learn more of.”
“And, even though you wrecked so many of my trees, you clearly have a lot of strength in your hooves. I can respect that!” Applejack spoke up.
“Not to mention, being able to get all the bunnies to work together like that. It’s so hard to get them to cooperate at times,” Fluttershy said quietly.
Rainbow Dash was quiet at first, at least until Pinkie rushed over and nudged her lightly. “And…I guess the lightning was pretty cool. Just try to avoid striking me with it, I can’t touch a pony without a static shock.”
“And…I think you just need some lessons about babysitting,” Spike finally said at the end. Thankfully, he was free from his baby clothes Mystery had put on him earlier.
“See, Mystery? You have friends here. It’s hard to get away from past mistakes, but I think with time, you’ll make a lot more friends if you stay in Ponyville.”
Mystery felt like he could hardly breathe. He used his magic to get Pinkie off of him before taking a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say. I…suppose I can give Ponyville another chance.” Though he never did say why, and he likely wouldn’t admit it either.
“YAY!” Pinkie jumped onto the picnic table and performed a cartwheel. “A new friend! I want to know EVERYTHING about you now! Where are you from? What’s your favorite fruit? What’s your mother’s maiden name?!” What is-“ A zipper suddenly appeared from one end of Pinkies mouth and ran across it, sealing her mouth shut.
“Don’t push it, Pinkie.” Mystery closed his eyes.
Pinkie glared at him briefly before responding with another huge hug. Her zipped up lips could still form a grin on her face. She reached behind her and suddenly smacked Mystery with brown pie goop that she had been saving from earlier.
The rest of the ponies couldn’t help but laugh as they watched. Mystery’s face was nothing short of a grimace at first, but soon, cracked a small smile.
The Bunny Rabbits are Coming!
Mystery started to slow down as he glanced behind him and noticed nothing was chasing him, or throwing things at him. "These ponies are CRAZY!" he shouted to himself. "I miss the isolated forest; it was much quieter there." he looked around at where he had run off to. It did have a bit of greenery around it with tall trees. One thing that caught his eye though was a tree that resembled a house. Of course, he knew better than to even try to knock on the door; unless he wanted to get chased out of town again. As he turned back to go back to his assigned home, the unicorn bumped right into Twilight.
"You're going to have to help AJ later," Twilight immediately said, not even stating so much as a simple 'hello' to him. "For now, you're going to try helping the local wildlife." She was being firm and right to the point with him. She had quite enough of the pony. "And this time, I'm going to keep an eye on you. Now come on." Twilight grabbed Mystery's hooves and practically dragged him to the front of the house. "You might remember Fluttershy. She's very quiet and gets nervous easily. Just let me do all the talking." She knocked on the door. "Fluttershy, it's me, Twilight."
The door slowly opened to reveal the yellow pegasus behind it, her pink hair the first visible thing. "Hello Twili-" she froze as her eyes shifted to catch sight of the gray pony that stood beside her. "YOU!" Normally, Fluttershy would have been scared straight knowing what such a pony did to Canterlot, or new ponies in general. This time though, Fluttershy remembered that day so well and she didn't want anyone to hurt her friends again. Anyone that even TRIED to hurt her friends became her enemy; and they were going to hear about it!
Fluttershy dashed out from her house to stand right in front of Mystery. She eyed him down and stepped closer to him. It was causing Mystery's own eyes to widen, let go of Twilight’s hoof, and move away from her as she started backing him into a tree. "I remember YOU!" Fluttershy shouted. "You tried to take over Canterlot. You manipulated that poor little squirrel, but most of all, YOU TRIED TO HURT MY FRIENDS!"
"Erm…Twilight…" Mystery said as he was backing away with his head lowered thanks to Fluttershy. His eyes didn't leave her own for even a moment as he tried to talk to her. "Could you come here for a moment?" he tried to maintain his composure, but it just wasn't working. His nervousness was obvious in his tone.
Twilight's mouth was wide just like her eyes. Fluttershy was not behaving like her normal quiet self. Then again, when her friends were in danger, she would always speak up for them. Considering what Mystery had done some time back, Fluttershy was unquestionably speaking up to him. Hearing Mystery's voice though, her horn glowed and she vanished in a puff of purple smoke to reappear next to Mystery. "What is it?"
"She scares me," Mystery said in a quiet tone, one that could compare to Fluttershy's own quiet voice.
Twilight rolled her eyes and looked at Fluttershy. "He's trying to be nicer to ponies, Fluttershy. We're trying to get him his mark and we need your assistance." Though she knew what answer to expect from an irritated pony such as herself.
"On one condition." Fluttershy suddenly stopped forcing the pony back. She stood up completely and turned her head away with her eyes closed. "He apologizes to us for what he's done."
"Forget it. I'd rather put all of Canterlot on wheels and drag it halfway across the globe by myself." Mystery huffed. Fluttershy was scaring him, but he still had a reputation to uphold!
"I can get you the reins," Twilight responded with an eye roll. "Anyways, look, you're willing to do anything to get your cutie mark, aren't you?"
"Just about anything." Mystery looked down for a moment and sighed. He knew where Twilight was going to go with this. "Fine, I'll say it. I'm…sally."
"Sally?" Twilight tilted her head with one brow raised.
"Give me a break, I'm new at this!" Mystery suddenly barked to her. Then she looked at Fluttershy again. By now, Fluttershy was eyeing him too with a glare on her face. "I'm sa…so…sor…" the pony just couldn't get the simple word out of his mouth. He tried it in a different approach. "I didn't mean to do what I did. I went absolutely insane over getting my mark. I'd like to make it up to you for everything that happened in Canterlot."
Fluttershy didn't hear the word 'sorry' at all. The way he explained his apology was enough to make her smile some. "Okay. I'll help you out. Let's go feed some bunnies."
Fluttershy went into her house for a moment before coming out with a bag on her back. "Here's the food. I'll lead the way." Fluttershy then led Mystery and Twilight away from her house and over to a clearing nearby. The clearing was neatly arranged in a circle and had a few holes dug in the ground that looked as if they were dug up by very small paws.
"The rabbits live here?" Mystery glanced at the holes curiously and peeked inside one. He was interrupted by Fluttershy who jumped right out in front of him before he had a chance to look and see what was inside.
"Yes," Fluttershy said with a nod. "But you have to be careful. You have to be very quiet and very gentle with bunnies." She proceeded to walk over to a tree that had a tiny bell placed on the side. She grabbed it with her teeth and rung the golden bell. From one of the holes, a rabbit popped out curiously and immediately hopped over to Fluttershy.
Fluttershy put the bell back and leaned her head down to the white furry creature. "It's dinnertime my little friend. Today we're going to have a special guest to help me out feeding you." She tilted her head slightly towards Mystery and Twilight that stood side by side.
The bunny eyed the two ponies for a moment. It tilted its head to the right, then left. Then the bunny suddenly started chattering to Fluttershy, speaking a language most ponies wouldn't be capable of understanding. Except Fluttershy that is.
Fluttershy nodded. "Oh? Why yes, that is the same pony. How did you-" she was suddenly cut off by more chattering from the bunny. "Well, yes. He did. But he didn't-" she was cut off, yet again by even more chattering. This time though, the chattering was sounding angry. "He didn't hurt him though! He just-" more chattering continuously interrupted her.
"Twilight." Mystery turned his head towards her. "You speak bunny? I don't get what they're saying." Was it really this difficult to feed an animal, a bunny no less? He recalled owning a goldfish once. Not even he had to have a conversation with it before feeding it something.
"Fluttershy has a way with animals." Twilight didn't even look back at Mystery. She was just eying the conversation between Fluttershy and the bunny. "I don't get what they're saying either. It sounds like they're talking about you though."
"Even the bunny knows me huh?" Mystery chuckled. "I didn't think I'd be so famous that even the local wildlife would be aware of my existence."
"Infamous," Twilight mumbled under her breath.
"No!" Fluttershy suddenly cried out. "You don't have to do that! Really!" She wasn't getting through to the angry bunny though. Suddenly the bunny let out a loud whistle, causing many bunnies to pop out of a variety of burrows that surrounded the clearing. The bunch of bunnies bounced over to the one that let out the whistle, pushing Fluttershy out of the group and to the other two ponies that were watching. The bunny that let out the whistle proceeded to chat angrily before pointing at Mystery with an outstretched paw. Each bunny turned to him with a look of pure anger on their face.
It was obvious to Mystery what was about to happen. He didn't know how, he didn't know why. He didn't speak animal! Still though, he glanced over at Twilight casually. "Twilight, if you please?"
Twilight's eyes were wide as she stared at the bunnies. She glanced at Mystery with a surprising look on her face. As if she could read his mind though, she knew what to tell him next. Her eyes and tail lowered into a grimace. "Run away in terror," she said with a sudden groan.
"Oh, Twilight, you're getting good at this." Mystery grinned at her. Then his face suddenly turned into that of panic before he dashed off towards Ponyville. It wasn't long before the large group of bunnies chased right after him; raising a cloud of dust as they did.
Once the gray pony and the bunnies were gone, Twilight looked up at Fluttershy. "Care to explain?" she said with her ears lowered.
"The squirrel he um...did things to, told the bunnies of Canterlot…then those bunnies told the ones in Ponyville," Fluttershy said worriedly. She dropped the bag of food she was carrying for the bunnies and suddenly took off after them. "Dear bunnies, please stop chasing him and come back." She said in her hushed tone. "Oh dear, I'm sure Mystery is sorry for what he did, but he's going to have to spend a lot of time with the bunnies and myself to prove it to them."
Twilight sighed before starting to slowly walk after the, once again, chase scene. Pinkie Pie's was a disaster. Rarity's home had an abomination. Applejacks farm was nearly completely ruined. Now, a herd of cute white bunnies were chasing after him angrily. She was running out of options with how to help this pony.
Author's Note
I know 'Sally' can be used as a name, but it's not used as a noun in this case. I was unsure if it should be capitalized in the sentence or not.