ecnaM-orB

A cross eyed, grey mail pony flies in lolloping streaks across the endless blue of the midday sky, a satchel hanging precariously at her side. Her flight path radically fluctuates up and down as she tries desperately to focus on staying aloft, almost plummeting out of the sky on more than one occasion.

She was the pony solely responsible for delivering mail to all the ponies of Ponyville, although one could stand to wonder how she ended up with the job in the first place, what with her rampant streak of getting lost and misplacement of cargo.

And it seemed today would be no exception as she continues with her unceremonious flight plan, completely un-aware of the slight rip in the satchel, or the unexpected drop in the weight of her load as she continues to fly, blissfully unaware that she’d just involuntarily unloaded some of the items she was carrying in said satchel and sent them careening several hundred feet into the shady canopy of the Everfree forest.

Twilight cantered through the heart of the Everfree forest, humming a harmonious tune to herself as she galloped. She trotted a few more paces before a gleam off in the distance caught her eye. She made her way over to the object and used her magic to pick it up.

It seemed to be some type of…orb, or a crystal ball of some sorts. She precariously twists the object in the grip of her magic as she studies it; noticing engraving along the foot of the form that read “ecnam-orb.”

She survey’s the object for several more seconds before finally deciding to take the object back to her home so she could study it properly. She carefully levitates the mysterious thing to her satchel and nestles it between the books she’d borrowed from Zecora and her half eaten lunch, then takes off gingerly down the path to Ponyville.

Twilight uses her magic to push open the door as she trots inside and shutting it behind herself. She levitates her saddle bag off her back and places it on the rack next to the door, bringing out said object yet again and taking a cursory glance before setting it down on a nearby table for later inspection.

“Spike, I'm home!”

She calls to the servile little dragon as she waits for him to come bounding to her side. When she receives naught but a flippant greeting and a dismissive wave from the second floor, she climbs the stairs to investigate the source of her baby dragon’s distraction and finds Spike, Snips and Snails engaged in a grueling game of draw poker. She didn’t know all that much about the workings of the game; but from the exasperated groan uttered by Spike and Snails and seeing their faces change from determined to dejected, she surmised that Snips was most likely winning. Her assumptions were only confirmed as Snips’ smile grew exponentially before his horn sputtered to life and he levitated more than half the pile of chips toward him.

“Hey guys.” Twilight drew out the first word; brow raised.

“Hey Twilight” Spike grumbled, obviously peeved he’d just been played out of a sumptuous mound of gemstones.

“Anyway,” Twilight started, “I found some weird…orb or something in the Evertree forest and I'm gonna go take a closer look. Try not to lose anymore gemstones OK?”

Spikes demeanor seemed to instantly brighten at the promise of another outlandish adventure, disregarding the jibe to his poker playing skills; he jumped off the table and began to follow Twilight as she turned to descend the stairs.

“Weird orb?” Spike questioned, curiosity obviously piqued. “What kind of weird orb?”

Twilight rolled her eyes, amazed at how quickly spikes interest could be snagged.

“I don’t know spike, but whatever it is, it definitely has magical properties, I could feel it the moment I made contact.”

A subtle “ooh” echoed from behind her as she reached the landing of her staircase. When she noticed that the resounding thud of footsteps was only becoming louder and more frequent she made an abrupt stop, the train of beings crashing into her flank.

“Yes,” she started. “You guys can see what it is; no, you can’t touch it, because I myself don’t even know what it does as of yet.”

Spike clasps his feet together, resolutely saluting to Twilight, Snips and Snails following in his stead. Twilight rolls her eyes for the second time as she trots over to the table she’d left the strange object on and once again picks it up with her magic, levitating it between the four of them.

“What is it?” Snails asks with wonderment clearly present in his voice.

“You don’t suppose it’s some kind of crystal ball eh?” Snails ponders, eliciting a frown from Twilight.

“Yeah!” Snips shouts in assent, “maybe the great and powerful Trixie knows what it is!”

“Oh no!” Interjects Twilight; “There’s no way in Equestria we are going to ask the great and powerful Trixie for help with anything!” She punctuates Trixie’s name with a mocking tone.

Twilight levitates the strange sphere over to Spike and drops it into his seemingly ostensible claws.

“Spike, make sure no one gets to…aesthetic with that thing. I'm gonna go see if I can’t find a book that might be able to help us out.”

“Aye eye Twilight” he salutes again, but she already has her back turned so the gesture flutters on the open air. He turns back around and is met with the rather off-putting sight of both Snips and Snails sitting, mesmerized by the object he was guarding for Twilight. Spike’s eyes narrow as he eyes the two colts warily. Snips opens his mouth to speak, but before either of them can get a word in edgewise, Spike cuts them off.

“Oh no,” he chides knowingly as the two colts watch his every move like a cat would a bird or a mouse. “Twilight told me not to let anyone touch it; we don’t know what kind of freaky voodoo magic this thing could possess.

“But uh-you’re touching it now aren’t ya?” Snails asks pointedly.

Spike looks down at the foreboding object before looking back up at the two bewildered colts.

“That’s beside the point.” He shakes his head, stalking over to the other side of the room and placing the orb back onto the splintering wood of the table. He then plants himself resolutely between the two curious colts and the mysterious object, determined to keep the objects integrity in tact.

Snips and Snails stood perplexed; hooves to their chins in thought. They stood that way for the better part of 2 minutes before an idea slithered its way into Snips’ mind and a few seconds later he skulks up the stairs and out of sight. He comes back down levitating a bulbous gemstone in front of him, making Snails grin as he finally catches up with the plan.

“Oh Spiiike!” Snips sang as he succeeds at grabbing the little dragon’s attention, who had been busy watching Twilight riffle through her menagerie of dusty old books. Spike glances over to see exactly why Snips was calling him, his eyes almost instantly snapping to the sizable gemstone levitating teasingly over Snips’ head.

“Oooh” Spike begins salivating as he watches the gemstone float in mid air, following every bounce and sway with glazed, predatory eyes. Unconsciously he begins to abandon his post, feet moving across the room of their own accord.

Once he makes his way across the room, Snips uses his magic to chuck the gemstone as far as he can. The hefty jewel clears the threshold of the basement door and clatters its way down the stairs, spike in hot pursuit right behind it. Both colts give a celebratory whoop as they watch Spike chase his snack down the flight of stairs, but their victory is short lived as the sheer enthralling nature of the orb steals their attention once again.

Both colts clamor to the other side of the room faster than they knew they could, merely staring at the sphere with awestruck expressions; as if it was the most resplendent thing they had ever seen. Both friends steal a glance at Twilight, who it seemed was still busy trying to find a book on said object, before glancing at each other with newfound reassurance. Two sets of hooves; one teal, the other a mustard yellow, reach out for the orb and gently albeit apprehensively make contact with its smooth glassy surface.

Both colts take on a look of sheer terror for a brief second as they both make contact with the orb, visibly flinching as they touch it. And after regaining their composure, both colts creak open an eye only to realize nothing had happened. But just as they think they’re in the clear, a hissing noise is heard, follow by a sudden egression of rainbow colored sparks, making both colts yelp and jump backward a few feet before falling on their rumps.

The sudden exclamation alerts Twilight and she whirls around only to find her assistant nowhere to be found and the orb that she told them not to touch slightly smoking from the top. She doesn’t even waste time stalking over to them as she teleports in front of Snails and uses her magic to throw him against Snips, both now shuffling backward in fear of her impending wrath.

“You didn’t touch the orb, did you?” A rhetorical question she already knows the answer to, and when they don’t respond she merely glares harder.

“Out!” She commands, and the petrified colts wordlessly obey as they scuttle out the door as fast as they can. Watching the colts scurry out the door, it occurs to her that she’d left Spike in charge of guarding the foreign object.

“Spike!” She yells just as he pokes his head through the arch of the basement door. She eventually notices his presence and stares him down, making the gemstone lodged precariously between his tooth droop a bit.

“We’re going to have a talk.” She states and then stalks up the stairs to her room, Spike following begrudgingly. As both patrons leave the room however, they fail to notice as two objects manifest themselves inside the glass structure. They’re blurry at first, but if one was to look into the orb, they would see the shape of a pair of silver barber’s scissors and a small purple snail.

CH: 2 coming soon