A Hint at Things to Come?

The meeting had run longer then expected. Spike and Twilight weren’t able to get back home before street lamps and windows became the only source of light on the roads. They walked in silence, mainly for the reason that Spike was asleep on Twilight’s back and she was deep in thought.

Her carrot based conjuration spells had been going exceptionally well in the past few days. But recently, the insides had been mildly swapped with that of cabbage and lima bean. Although the mixture was impressive, she wanted to first work on different types of vegetables before mixing and matching.

She also took note to examine the Tobar Nebula that night. The blue clouds around it had been shifting into a strange green and yellow pattern that appeared to be in some kind of weird symmetry with each other. If that was true, then it was just as possible for comets and other space bound anomalies to form shapes at random as well. That is to say, if the Tobar Nebula was random. It could be just as well manipulated by some kind of higher force, possibly a wizard along the south of Equstria?

Twilight fumbled for her keys out of her saddle bag, and turned the lock of the door, swinging it open with her horn’s magic. She wiped her hooves on the floor mat, and brought Spike upstairs. She laid the sleeping little lizard into his basket and folded the comforter and sheets over him.

With Spike in bed, that left Twilight with another hour in the night to read her new favorite book, “Vigilantes: The Graphic Novel”. She wasn’t accustomed to reading really long comic books that masqueraded as legitimate works of literature, but this read had interested her from the very start.

It told a story of super heroes in the real world, trying to do good in a dark and depressive version of Manehatten that was almost on the brink of war with the rest of Equstria. Although the premise was bitter, the artwork and storyline were amazing.

She trotted over to her nightstand and found the table’s drawer slid open and the book gone. She looked under her bed, under the carpet, behind her desk, in her closet, but the book did not turn up.

Walking back into the main foyer of the treehouse, Twilight began to scratch her mane. Had she left it at Town Hall? Was it back in the library? Did Spike know where it was? Who could have…

Twilight froze. A thought cracked into her brain and sent her eyes frantically searching through the room. Where was Alistair?

Her handy human sidekick, whom she had just spoken with a few hours ago, was nowhere to be seen. She began to run through the house looking for him, calling out his name, each time becoming more frantic.

She hadn’t given him any direction or idea of what to do when she left for the meeting, so now whatever would happen to him would be, by transitive property, her fault!

The entire library and second floor had been cleared. No trace of him could be found on any of the levels. However, Twilight did discover that a block of cheddar cheese and a bowl of raisins had been gorged into while she was gone.

Each room was checked again just to be sure she hadn’t missed anything, and still no Alistair could be found. Every square inch of the treehouse had been searched everything from bottom to…top.

Twilight bounded up the stairs once more and continued to climb till reaching the roof access. She rammed the door open with her head, sending the wooden door crashing against the wall.

She found Alistair asleep on the small chilly balcony floor, overlooking all of Ponyville. “Vigilantes” was folded open over his sleeping face. The twinkling lights of the small town, made the night glitter with artificial light.

Grabbing the book with her horn, she lifted it off him. Mumbling something, he turned over on his side, still asleep.

She peered at the page he had been on. The picture was of one of the main characters, Horsechach, walking out of a saloon. The thought bubble on the upper right read: “Never despair. Never surrender. I leave the pony cockroaches to discuss their salt cubes and sports magazine covers. I have business elsewhere, with a better class of person.”

Twilight shivered. That book had that affect on the ponies. Although deeply grim, it was amazingly cool at the same time.

She draped a blanket from her bedroom over Alistair, still sound asleep in the open night air, and walked back down the long stairs, the graphic novel floating behind her.

Sitting down at her work desk, she opened to where she had left her bookmark and began to read.

“Cleared throat. The colt turned, something rewarding in his eyes. Sometimes, the night is generous to me…”