My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the intellectual property of Lauren Faust, Hasbro, and many others. I am making no claims whatsoever that I own any part of the world used, nor it’s characters.

An Earth Pony, Pegasus, and Unicorn Walk Into Canterlot Castle
Chapter 1:
Of Making Friends and Breaking Bones

Ink Blot was an earth pony, with an orange coat and bright teal mane and tail. However, most ponies identified her by the dark splatter pattern of her coat that went from the bottom of her hooves, and lead up her legs. Her parents- both of which were pegasi- would tell her that as a small filly she loved to play with colour, so much so that her coat had adopted the pattern of paint on canvas.

Her cutie mark, was that of a paint splatter behind a light bulb, showed her talent of coming up with new and interesting ideas, and expressing them through art. Art... That was why she was here, in Manehatten. The bustling city was one of artist of all shapes and sizes. Actors, comedians, and of course, painters like her were common place here.

She had just arrived in the central train station from her long eight hour ride from Fillydelphia, and she was looking forward to finding a place to spend the night. She smiled, adjusting her saddlebags with her mouth before heading out.

She walked down the busy streets with wide eyes, Fillydelphia was no small city by any stretch of the imagination, but the busy streets of Manehatten made her home city look like a quaint little village. She was utterly awed at how big some of these buildings were. The mare walked around in this fashion for the better part of the day, totally unaware that she was being followed by a single stallion.

While Fillydelphia was a decently large city, it was one that experienced very little crime. In fact, the last large crime that occurred was a few years ago, wherein an old earth pony stallion named ‘Stinking Rich’ had committed an act of fraud, stealing countless bits from many different companies.

With this in mind, it was no surprize that when Ink Blot came across a dark alleyway, she spent no time thinking if she should enter or not. Simply trotting past a large lavender unicorn, who was watching her with interest.

Jovial Script had spent his entire life growing up and living in the bustling metropolis of Manehatten, and as a result, he knew pretty much every in and out of busy city. Where all the best coffee shops are, where the best street performers play, he even knew where the best quill shops were.

He was a light lavender unicorn, with a dual colored mane and tail. He was rather robust in stature, similar to most of the noble minded ponies around him, he had not done this to his body on purpose, however. His overall shape was the result of a thyroid burning out when he was a younger colt.

His cutie mark was an open book being written upon by a feather quill. His talent lay in understanding the history of the pony tribes to such a degree that it was essentially first hoof knowledge to him. He was currently attempting to get his degree in equinology. To make a living, he billed himself out as an author for hire, it wasn't much, but it was enough to make decent living a reality.

He was, like Ink Blot, walking down the cramped streets of the city, interested more in the ponies, donkeys, and the occasional griffin, rather than the towering skyscrapers. The foalish wonder of seeing a building stretch into the sky had long since disappeared, replaced with a certain breed of normality, or perhaps even disdain.

To Jovial Script, the hustling and bustling city was a place of dull concrete. One of the few things making it even barely tolerable was the numerous museums, proudly displaying the history of the three Pony Tribes and the Griffish Kingdoms. There were even a few dedicated to dragon and diamond dog culture.

The other reason, was simply the citizens themselves. He would often find himself sitting at an outside cafe, or a city bench, content to simply watch the other ponies continue on with their lives. This is what he was doing at the moment, sitting on a bench in one of the less populated of the cities districts. He was about to head back to his little apartment when a mare caught his eye.

She was orange and tiny. If it wasn’t for the way that she carried herself, Script would’ve thought she was a filly. She was certainly looking at the buildings around her like one. He shook his head and stood up, walking in the direction she was coming from. He was ready to forget about the diminutive mare until he saw a shady looking unicorn stallion follow her into an alleyway.

The large unicorn narrowed his eyes, he couldn’t tell if the stallion was planning anything funny but... Better safe than sorry.

Rolling Tapes was a tall blue stallion, his body more reminiscent to that of an earth pony than a pegasus, despite this he was still able to fly quite well. He has a relatively short mane and tail, and it was a slightly lighter shade of blue than his coat with a light green stripe going through it. Curiously, he wore a dark green scarf around his neck, even though it was not cold out even in the slightest.

The stallions cutie mark, or as most colts in Trottingham called it- his emblem- was that of two megaphones, the ones used by directors so they could speak to the entire cast and crew, crossing each other. Ever since he was a colt, the pegasus was absolutely enamored with any and all elements of cinema. The art of film was still a rather new one, after all, the invention of the video camera was only around fifty years ago.

To cinema, like many other forms of art, Manhattan was a breeding ground for creativity, many of the best films have been made from studios situated here. Unfortunately for Tapes, the need for new directors was very few and far between. In order for him to be signed as a director for a project, he needed experience, to get experience he needed to do projects, to do projects he needed experience... On and on the cycle went.

The stallion shook his head, trying to clear out those frustrating thoughts. He decided to focus on his flying. He had only been in this city for about a week, and the best progress with regards to beginning his career was the purchasing of his new camera, which was secured tightly in a large saddle bag.

He smiled as he flew around the tall reaching buildings, the sky was by far less busy than what it looked like on the ground. Speaking of which, the view from up here was... well it was absolutely beautiful. Rolling Tapes always had a rather odd view of beauty. Where others saw an empty field as a place of tranquility and peace, he saw only grass. Alternatively, where others saw big skyscrapers as nothing but chunks of concrete, Tapes saw the physical representation of progress.

Sometimes he would hijack a cloud and just watch the city transition from day to night, and it would never cease to make the stallion happy.

He was now looking for a place to land that was close to his tiny, rundown apartment that was not overrun with ponies, and he thought he had found such a place in the form of an alleyway. It seemed that there wasn’t anypony in it. He allowed himself to fall into a glide, aiming for the alley.

Ink Blot sighed as she walked into the shadows, she could’ve sworn that it was a lot less dark and scary from outside it. She paused, considering turning around and finding another way.

“Don’t be a silly filly, Ink Blot. You’re a grown mare, you can handle a little darkness.” She said to herself, taking a few tentative steps.

She had made it about halfway down the alley, when she heard a deep chuckle come from behind her.

“Hey pretty filly. What are you doing on this side of town?” A gruff voice asked, and she could tell that he was walking closer to her. Eyes widening, she began walking faster, hoping to get out of the darkness and into public before anything could happen, unfortunately, she wasn’t quick enough.

“Oh no you don’t!” He said, grabbing the orange mare in a magical hold, preventing her from moving. “Scream and you’re dead.” Ink Blot could only nod her head, too afraid of what the unicorn would do to her. She felt him rummaging around in her saddlebags no doubt looking for anything that could be worth a few bits. She felt her heartbeat grow quicker, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to find anything of value.

“What the buck is this!? You’ve got nothing!” She heard him growl into her ear. “Pretty mare like you? You’ve got to have some bits hidden away somewhere!” The earth pony mare saw a knife float into her vision. “Where!?”

She was about to answer her assailant when two voices called out at once, each coming from opposite ends of the alleyway.

“HEY! What do you think you’re doing!?” One voice said, coming from where she came from, she wasn’t able to see it’s owner.

“OI! GIT YA’ BLEEDIN’ ‘OOVES OF ‘ER!” The other, heavily accented voice came from in front of her and looked to belong to what appeared to be a tall pegasus stallion. In the back of her mind, she identified the accent as one from Trottingham.

“Walk away and I won’t hurt her.” She heard her captor growl, the knife coming close enough that she could feel it against her c

“OR,” yelled the pony with the accent, “Ya’ walk, or I’ll ma’e sure ya’ neva’ walk again!” Ink Blot narrowed her eyes, watching as the pegasus walked closer. She could feel the magical aura of her attacker falter. If she timed things right... Apparently, both her and her attacker had forgotten about the stallion behind them, that is, until a small rock shot past what she assumed was his head.

“STAY BACK!” Her captor bellowed, pressing the blade of the knife further against her throat, almost hard enough to pierce the skin.

Another rock came whizzing towards them, this time, the piece of stone found it’s mark, hitting her captor directly on the horn. This was enough to break the stallions concentration. As soon as she felt the magical aura around her hooves fade, she acted. She spun on her hooves, planting her forelegs solidly on the ground, she grinned, delivering a solid buck to her attackers chest.

As soon as her hooves connected, the air left the unicorns chest. He was almost instantly on the ground, trying desperately to force air into his lungs. Before he could even attempt to recover, Ink Blot was on him, furiously stomping on him.

“YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST MUG ME!?” She yelled as she pounded him. “YOU’RE JUST LUCKY I DON’T MUG YOU!”

Caught off guard by the tiny mare’s actions, the two standing stallions looked at each other, both wearing similar expressions of confusion, surprise, and no small amount of fear in their eyes. They were both brought back into the real world by the orange mare’s continuous stomps. She was still shouting, and every word was accompanied by her beating the downed stallion.

“YOU!” Smack. “STUPID!” Thump. “IDIOT!” CRACK. Ink Blot was breathing heavily, strained from the severe beating she just delivered to the bloody colt on the ground.

She let out a breath, looking around the alley to find her two saviours cowering in fear, holding each other in their hooves. She smiled at them, and they both flinched away from her.

“Don’ hurt us!” The blue pegasus all but screamed, grasping the other stallion in abject terror. The other stallion- who she could now identify as somepony that she walked passed earlier- was nodding his head. “We’ll give you anything you want!” He said, peeking out from behind the other stallions wings.

Her eyes widened, “Why would you think that I’d...” She was interrupted by the two cowering stallions pointing to the pony that was bleeding on the ground.

“Oh...” She frowned slightly, before sighing. “We’d better call the police about him... huh?” The other two- for their part- nodded stiffly, still obviously terrified by the tiny mare in front of them.

“Uh...” She started. “I’m Ink Blot...”

“Rolling Tapes!” The pegasus said, voice cracking slightly.

“J-Jovial Script.” The other stallion stuttered out, only for the orange earth pony to smile at them.

“Nice to meet you!”

Author's Note

And here's the first real chapter! A big thanks to RandomlyPonies for being my beta reader and making sure that I didn't royally mess this up.