Deliverance

I awoke from my dreamless slumber to the sound of knocking at the door. Rising from the library's couch, I could already make out the faint rustling of Twilight awakening. I looked at the window to note that the sun had only just began to contemplate  rising. Whoever was visiting was certainly an early riser. Twilight stepped down the stairs as another round of knocking sounded at the door. "Can you get that Edmund?" she asked. Obliging, I stepped to the door and opened it.

"AH!" was all I received in greeting as I opened the door. I had anticipated the reaction to be more common since my arrival in Equestria. All the same it hurt to be viewed as an object of fear. Casting my glance downwards I saw two ponies. Both had a grey coat with blond mane. One was a full grown adult pegasus with eyes slightly askew, the other a filly unicorn with eyes shut tight, huddling against the larger in fear.

"Dinky hush, it's not going to hurt you." The elder said as Twilight stood beside me in the doorway.

"Oh hello Derpy! Is something wrong with Dinky?"

The grey pegasus opened her mouth to reply. "My sister saw this ...."

"Edmund, a human, though the human would be applicable as well." I offered.

"Right." The pegasus nodded, one eye following the motion as the other remained fixed on me. "My sister, Dinky, saw you yesterday, she came home crying that she saw a monster. When I heard it, you, were here with Twilight, I thought I could show her you were alright. At this moment the foal shuffled and whimpered, placing herself under her sister.

I got down into a kneeling position and transitioned into sitting on the ground and extended a hand. "Hey there, Dinky, I'm Edmund. Why don't you come out from there. The small filly opened her eyes and looked at me, then at my hand. Sniffing, she looked at Derpy, who gave a nod of assent. With this the filly took one tentative step towards me, her leg shaking as it reconnected with the ground. I put on what I imagined to be my least intimidating look as the filly made her way to just in front of my hand. The blond maned unicorn extended her neck, her nose just making contact with a knuckle. Derpy had now adopted a familial smile at the young pony's antics as Dinky took another step and extended a hoof towards my fingers. She put a slight pressure on my pinky and and I coiled it into my palm, earning a slight start but also a fascinated look. Dinky then looked around and noted all the faces smiling silent encouragement to her. She applied pressure to the rest of my fingers and I obliged, forming a loose fist. The filly tilted her head slightly and inspected her hoof before pressing it with some speed to my knuckles. "Hello!" Dinky uttered.

"See? He's friendly." Derpy grinned as Dinky returned underneath her sister. "Now, I also have a delivery."

"HUH! Oh my gosh! I forgot with all that happened I was expecting another delivery of books soon." Twilight exclaimed. Looking beyond the cross-eyed mare I noted a large crate. Twilight lifted said crate with her magic and I stepped aside to allow the box in, if it was full to the top with books, I would not have been able to lift it with the apparent ease Twilight did. "Thank you for bringing these Derpy, and I'm glad Dinky got to meet Edmund.

"Thanks Twi, come on Dinky, I feel like cherry muffins for breakfast!" The mare turned, her hooves weaving awkwardly around the grey filly and lifting off, flying with a gentle curve punctuated by the occasional zigzag. Dinky waving a hoof at me as she grew even smaller in the distance.

I turned to Twilight as she pried off the lid of the box, revealing a respectable repository of knowledge that did indeed fill  all the space in the crate. "Wow, it seemed like I ordered fewer books when it was just on a sheet of paper." Twilight chuckled as she lifted a book. "Now to organize, lets see The Life of Chancellor Puddinghead by Jebediah Stampede." Twilight peeled a sticker to place a respective code. "That would be biography..." As Twilight lifted her head I noted a fact I had missed late last night, every shelf in the library was completely full. "Well, that's a problem ..." The purple mare stated flatly, ears folding downwards.

"Well, the solution is obvious, we need more places to put stuff." I stated gently.

"But every space is already occupied in the library." She responded. "Everything here has a place, and there isn't a place for anything else."

"Well, sounds like its time that the library receives an extension." I indicated to the back door of the library, leading out to a generous open space behind the great oaken building.

"That would require a permit from the mayor, not to mention the cost of construction and materials." Twilight turned back to me as she rested the tome onto a coffee table.

"I've got my work with Applejack, and you have your additional stipend for supporting me. As for construction materials, there's plenty of trees in the forest nearby." I offered, I was stubborn, when a solution arose, it was hard to divert me from pursuing it.

"Whitetail woods is a nature preserve." Twilight shaked her head. "You can't just go chopping down trees there."

"That ominous outgrowth with those black mountains in the distance? It doesn't even have a path leading into it." I replied.

"Oh! You were thinking about using trees from the Everfree? That might be difficult, that place is dangerous. Not to mention that its Crown Land, it belongs to Princess Celestia, you'd need a royal grant to cut it down." The lavender mare looked at me.

"Well, I would only be at the edge of the forest while gathering lumber, as for the permits, I suppose I can handle that in my time off." I offered, eager to see the Ponyville library improved. It was Twilight's passion, and after all, she had saved my life, even if not fully intentionally. The least I could do was cut down a few trees and deal with paperwork.

Nodding, Twilight spoke. "Alright, we'll get breakfast, and then you can go to town hall and deal with the papers for the library to be extended, and I'll write up a letter to Princess Celestia about your plan, I'm sure she'd grant you an audience when she hears that its to help Ponyville.

I agreed to this arrangement, and Twilight set to preparing a meal as Spike entered the kitchen. We explained the the dragon our plans and when we finished, we set off to make the world a little bit better.

****

In Canterlot, a white alicorn was seeking the best for the object of her own affections. Princess Luna had, since meeting with Edmund, become reticent and seldom met any subjects outside of her ceremonial raising of the moon. Celestia was standing at her sister's door, frowning as she noted it was locked. "Luna," the elder goddess said, "please talk to me, I told you that humans had a dark past, but there was also good in it. Nations forming alliances for purposes greater than themselves, artists showing the beauty, not just of their world but of other imagined ones." A dark aura enveloped the door and it swung open revealing Luna standing on the balcony. Celestia walked to her sister, noticing a few shining drops of freshly shed tears on the floor by the night alicorn's hooves.

"I can't believe ... no, I can believe, that kind of cruelty I heard described. It..." The princess of the night sniffed, continuing. "It reminded me of ... her." Celestia nodded, Luna's memories, all one thousand and three years, nine months, and five days, of her corruption by Nightmare Moon. "I'm ashamed of myself, not just for what I did, but for thinking only I could have known such suffering and cruelty." Luna finished. She turned to her sister and decided to speak further. "You said that this human would be able to help Equestria, how do you think he is going to do that?"

Before Celestia could reply a flash of magic brought a scroll before the sun goddess. Opening the letter, the ivory mare scanned the letter, a smile spread across her face as she muttered. "Deus ex machina."

Luna tilted her head, confused, "What's that sister?"

"I think the answer to your previous question just got answered Lulu." Luna returned to her normal stance as the letter was passed to her. Celestia seldom used Luna's nickname unless she was very happy about something. "Be well sister, I have a permit to arrange."

****

Trixie awoke to the sound of gentle stirring and birds chirping. But more than this, she noticed a notable relief in the pain than she had the last time she woke up. She lifted her head to see Zecora stirring at a cauldron, the smell emanating it was to Trixie, not wholly unpleasing, and she decided to ask if it was food.

"What are you making?"

"Not a magical brew, 'tis but a vegetable stew." Zecora responded, hardly surprised at the unicorn's return to consciousness.

Trixie shifted her position and noted that even her broken leg felt much better as she reached for the floor. Testing the weight on each hoof Trixie found that they were all fine except for a dull ache. "How long was I out?" She asked.

"Hours four, you slept and snored." The Zebra returned, adding a dash of salt to the cauldron. Trixie's mouth was agape at this, unicorns could learn healing spells that would repair wounds in minutes yes, and earth ponies would cause everything around them to grow and regenerate by mere presence alone. All the same it was impressive that the herbal tonic had been so potent.

"Thank you, for helping me I mean, I ... didn't really deserve the kindness." The blue mare said.

At this the zebra's ears swivelled and she cast a sidelong look at the illusionist. "Not deserving of kindness this cannot be, you seem a virtuous sort to me."

"But that's just it! I seem good but I want to be good." The mare exclaimed, not in anger at Zecora, but at herself. "All my life I've been obsessed with putting myself above others with nothing but flaunted tricks, and now... I want to do something real for a change. I know I said I wanted help going back into Ponyville, but first, I need to help you, to show you the kindness you showed me."

Zecora stopped stirring the pot and spoke. "If a good character you wish to show to me, then after this meal you can help me clean."

"Thank you. But why are you doing all this?" The cerulean unicorn inquired.

The zebra smiled and spoke. "My people's poets have this to say, on treating others, there's only one way. 'Teach me to feel another's woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.'"

****

The day had gone well, I had gone to the mayor's office early and acquired a permit to expand the library after filling a refreshingly minimal amount of paper work. I had then went on to Sweet Apple Acres, where I had worked with Applejack and Big Macintosh for several hours, stopping for a lunch of more apples. I was going to have to start bringing my own lunches, or develop a greater appreciation for the fruit than I already had.

I was returning to the library when Doctor Whooves trotted alongside me, grinning ear to ear. Interested to know what had him so jubilant, I asked. "What's got you so happy?"

"I went to Rarity's yesterday after you talked to me."

"And...?" I was happy for the chestnut stallion, he had certainly taken the initiative. "How did it go?"

"Fantastic!"

"So, when's the date?" I asked.

At this the Doctor glanced at me and his ears turned downward. "I didn't actually ask her out, I ordered a suit, also, a fez, but that's less significant."

At this I stopped and grabbed the bridge of my nose. "Well, do you intend to ask her out when you pick up the suit?"

"That's exactly my plan, but, well, normally when I find a partner its under some situation of duress which we might not make it out of, how do I ask her out when there isn't something trying to kill us?"

This thought concerned me, the stallion before me was not used to an evening of contentment. Having lived the easy life myself, barring the unfortunate circumstances of my arrival to Equestria, I gave him some cliched advice. "Tell her that you're fascinated by her and would really like to get to know her better."

"But I already know her quite well, agent of Celestia and all that?" The Doctor responded.

"You know what she is and has done, you do not know who she is and why she does the things she does." I responded.

"That actually makes a bit of sense, even with my previous partners it sometimes took a while to understand what made them tick, not dreadfully long, but then that was when we were talking and saving the world or universe. I'll take that approach, thanks." He responded and trotted off. Boastful as he was for claiming to have saved the universe, I had the feeling that he could back it up by action.

Upon reaching the library I heard the indistinct moans of pain emanating from within, concerned for the safety of Twilight and Spike, I entered without knocking. I saw Spike laying on his stomach and letting out long exasperated declarations of discomfort, with Twilight levitating an ice pack to her assistant.

"What happened?" I inquired, informing the purple hued duo of my presence, and Twilight was the first to speak.

"Spike was just putting a few books away when he started feeling a cramp in his shoulders, its been getting worse for the last few hours."

"Oooohhh... I don't get it, I've done way more lifting than that on any other day." Spike added.

I looked at Spike's back and saw no discolouration to indicate a bruise or some such internal injury. Then I realized that the purple scales would make such an endeavour useless. I leaned down and pressed Spike's lower back with a slight pressure. "Did that hurt?"

"Not really, like Twi said, it's my shoulders that are ... AAAHHH---URP!!" I slid back as Spike's scream rapidly shifted to a belch as a piece of paper materialized before him. I grabbed it, and noticing that it had a sun emblazoned on the seal, handed it to Twilight. Spike panted as I continued to look at his back, looking for some sign of the purple dragon's suffering. When Twilight finished scanning the paper she spoke up.

"It's from the princess, she asked to see you back in Canterlot in a week regarding your proposal to use trees from the Everfree forest for the extension's construction." The lavender mare spoke as her amethyst eyes again began scrutinizing her assistant's heaving frame. She squinted as her eyes met with Spike's shoulders again. I turned to see that on Spike's upper back to spine growth were protruding from his back. "Aha!" The purple unicorn ran to the shelves. "Medical anatomy, Dr. Living Stone, yes! Dragon Growth and Development." Twilight began scanning the book and stopped a third of the way through and began reciting from the text. "At between the ages of ten and sixteen years of age, a baby dragon will begin their first growth spurt, this will involve the growing of wings, elongation of the tail and overall growth that, by approximately age twenty, will place the dragon at the size of an average pony. That's it Spike, your wings are finally coming in!" The mare at this point was smiling and tears were forming in her eyes. "It seems like moments ago, but really its been fifteen years since I hatched you."

"Ugh, so I'm not being torn apart from the inside by a crazed squirrel, but from my own wings? Great." At the dragon's deadpan we all snickered. "The pain is actually starting to subside."

Twilight continued. "Wing development happens fairly rapidly, by the time you wake up tomorrow you'll probably have a full set, though it might be a few days before you can fly."

We were all thoroughly relieved to know that Spike was perfectly, if painfully so, fine. The hours rolled on and soon we all found our way to bed after Twilight had delved into several texts regarding dragon anatomy. I personally found a science text labelled Equestrian Bestiary and I turned in for the night, content to inform myself of an extensive, if not comprehensive, overview of Equestrian fauna over the next few days.

__________

A/N The quote Zecora uses is from Alexander Pope, a 17th century poet. While in the story it has been stated that humans have from time to time visited Equestria, the quote is intended to have developed from Zecora's own people.