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                    The Friends We Keep                    
                     -by shadowgooey-                      
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                        Chapter One                        
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Chapter One
It was a pleasant day in Ponyville. The sun was out, there were a few clouds in the sky - but not too many - and the town center was bustling with activity. Every pony was going about their business, saying hello, buying from the shops, but there was one pony who seemed a bit different from the others.
A pony, or pegasus to be more exact, had just trotted into town. He had a wide eyed expression looking at all the stalls and houses, as if it was something entirely new to him. A particular stall caught his interest, with an orange earth pony standing behind it. She had a yellow mane and tail and a large Stetson hat, but that was not what he was focusing on.
"Uh, can ah help ya sugar cube?" The sales pony asked. The pony in question had a blue coat of fur, and his red mane looked like something blew up in his face the way it was sticking out. He was looking at the stall with a happy, yet curious look on his face.
"What is this stuff?" The pegasus asked, eying up the items on the stall.
The sales pony, a little irritated by such an obvious question, did her best to smile. "Well ah'm sellin apples and other baked goods. These here are, apple fritters, apple pies, caramel apples and apple crisp." She motioned her hoof over the items as she explained what she had.
"Oh, so you're suppose to eat it." He bent down to try and take a bite out of one of the items, before being pushed back by a hoof.
"Whoa hold on there partner, ya gotta pay fer these first."
"Pay with what?"
"Bits."
"What are bits?"
She facehoofed at the last question. "Y'know, bits! What we use to pay fer everything! These things!" She reached into a jar and pulled out three copper coins.
He eyed up the coins presented to him, and after a bit too long, he formed an 'O' with his mouth. "So it's like gems! But I don't have any of those."
"Well then what they hay you bothering me fer!" The sales pony replied, visibly frustrated.
The pegasus snapped back to attention, as if he just remembered something. "Oh, I'm looking for somepony, her name is Trixie. She is blue like me, and wears a cool looking hat and robe!"
She calmed down a bit, and rubbed a hoof on her temple, suppressing a headache. She gave a heavy sigh before responding to him again, "She came here 'bout two years ago now, left the same night she came."
"Oh..." He responded, dropping his ears down in sadness. "Do you think there is anyway I can find her?"
"Well you could always talk to-" She was about to continue, but was cut off by a pink obstruction.
"Hi Applejack!" The pink mare said, as she popped into view. She spun around to face the new pony, having her pink bubbly mane bounce around with her. "Oh hi! You're new to town aren't you? I can tell because I know everypony in town, but I don't know you! My name is Pinkie Pie! What's yours?" She never stopped to take a breath once as she spoke, an impressive feat.
The pegasus smiled in response. "Hello Pinkie Pie, my name is Rayos."
"Rayos!" Pinkie Pie said, giggling a little. "That's a funny name. Well this is my friend Applejack!" She pointed a hoof over to the sales pony, to which she replied with a simple "Howdy."
"Actually Pinkie, maybe you could give him a hoof," Applejack said, "He is looking for somepony, and ah was just about to point him over to Twilight at the library, perhaps you could show him the way."
"Okie doke lokie!" Pinkie Pie gave a salute to Applejack. "Are ya ready, Rayos?" She asked, and he nodded in response. "Wee let's go!" Pinkie took off and started hopping along the road.
"I'm coming!" Rayos said in response. He looked over to Applejack, and waved goodbye. "Thank you for helping me out!" And then he chased after the bouncing pink mare.
Applejack waved a hoof goodbye as well "Don`t come back too soon now ya hear!" Glad to be rid of the nuisance, she sighed in relief, and prepped herself to deal with a real customer.
Taking one last look at the two ponies, Applejack noticed something off about Rayos, but before she had a chance to act on it, a customer came up to her stall. "Hello, could I get two apple fritters please?"
"Sure thing, sugar cube!" She took one last look before dealing with her customer.
.........................
The trot, or in Pinkie's case, hop to the library was - for the most part - uneventful. Rayos was very much interested in the houses at first, but seeing the same old thing was beginning to drag on him a little.
Pinkie Pie was cheerily bouncing along the stone road with Rayos trotting behind. "So who are you looking for?" Pinkie Pie asked, "Are you looking for your family, or maybe you wanna find that special some pony." She teased at him.
Rayos was happy for the distraction and replied, "I'm looking for my friend, Trixie. Do you know of her?"
Pinkie Pie stopped for a moment to think. "Oh yea, I heard my friends talking about her, she came to town two years ago. They all said mean things about her, but I'm sure she wasn't that bad. Maybe if I threw her a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party, we could have all gotten along." Pinkie Pie suddenly jumped in the air, and deeply inhaled. "Omigosh! I could throw you a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party! It would be the best thing ever!"
The pink party pony was cheerily bouncing around Rayos while she spoke, and he seemed to be catching a bit of her cheerfulness. "Awesome, Ive never been to a party before, whats it like?" He asked the mare.
They continued along the path, Pinkie still bouncing along the way. "Oh we could do tons of fun stuff at parties, we could play pin the tail on the pony, twister, tic tac toe, and we can dance, drink punch, and I get to hang out with all of my friends!"
"And how many friends do you have?" Rayos asked.
"435, every pony in Ponyville is my friend! But Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity are my besties."
Rayos took a step back, giving Pinkie an amazed look. "Wow that's a lot of friends! I only have two, Trixie and Knowledge."
Pinkie laughed a little at the last name. "Knowledge, that's a silly name for a pony to have, like yours!" Pinkie Pie stopped herself for a moment, realizing that she might have insulted Rayos. "Not that that's a bad thing though, its a great name!" She offered a toothy smile.
"Well Knowledge is not really a-" Rayos was about to continue what he was saying, but was cut off.
"We're here!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, pointing to the building before her. The building looked like an ancient tree, except hollowed out to fit others inside. The tree had a very wide trunk, but did not seem to be very tall in comparison. There were two red doors in the front, and at least seven windows visible. There was also a balcony and a telescope at the top.
Rayos did not seem overly impressed. "Huh... I thought it was going to be bigger. The library I'm used to is the size of a mountain."
Pinkie Pie looked over to Rayos with a wide eyed expression. "Whoa, you should totally show me it sometime!" She stepped forward and opened the library doors. "Hi Twilight!" Pinkie Pie yelled out.
The inside of the library was an interesting sight. The interior was fairly large, with seating arrangements, and a table. The walls of the giant house tree were carved out in order to act as bookshelves. The library even had a kitchen, which was located to the right, ahead of them was a door presumably leading to a basement, and stairs to the left, leading to what appeared to be some personal quarters.
A lavender unicorn came down from the stairway. "Oh hello there Pinkie, I was not expecting you in today. What brings you here?" She looked fairly accomplished, with a smoothly brushed violet mane and tail, along with an indigo and magenta highlight. She was very well kept.
"Well there is this new pony in town, and he is looking for some pony. Applejack figured you could help, so I helped him find the library." Pinkie responded, and waved Rayos inside the library.
He introduced himself as he came in, but as he was walking in, the floor began to creak, like something heavy was moving on it.
Twilight looked at the pony entering her library. "Are you the one making all that noise?" She asked.
"Uh..." Rayos stepped forward to test this, and the floor did, in fact creak again. "I think it is, why?"
"But you don't even have any saddle bags on, how could you weigh enough to make my floors creak?" Twilight asked, still looking him over. Rayos' eyes shot open, as if he just realized something, but tried to hide it shortly after, and offered an uneasy smile in return. Twilight took notice of his sudden reaction, but passed it off for now. "Do you know how much you weigh?" Rayos shook his head in response. "With your permission, I'm going to cast a spell on you, and find out myself."
A smile beamed across Rayos face. "Oh! I like magic! Please show me!" He leaped up in excitement at the mention of magic, violently shaking the library and knocking down a few books. Rayos summed up his mistake with an "Oops" as Twilight moved the books back up with her magic.
Twilight silently thanked Celestia that he was not standing over the basement when he leaped up. "Oookay, I will take that as a yes, just don't do that again, please." And with that, Twilight lit up her horn and engulfed Rayos in a light purple glow. A few seconds later, the light in Twilight's horn faded, along with the glow surrounding Rayos.
He looked around in confusion. "So when does the spell start?"
Twilight had a similar reaction, looking at the blue pegasus before her. "But... how is this possible? You don't have nearly enough body mass to weigh this much!"
Pinkie looked over to Twilight. "How much does he weigh? 400 pounds, maybe 500, oh oh! 1000 pounds!" She was hopping in excitement with her little guessing game.
"Your last one was close Pinkie, he weighs 975 pounds!" Twilight responded.
Pinkie lightly stomped her hoof on the floor. "Aw, so close!"
Rayos spoke up, "Uh, that's a lot, right?" He said, raising an eyebrow.
"A lot?" Twilight responded. "It's about three times the weight of a regular pony your age! How did you end up like this? Did somepony enchant you?"
Rayos thought for a moment. "Well I'm not sure what an enchant is, but Trixie cast quite a few spells on me. She used this one spell that made me really big, and this other spell that made me see-through! She really liked to try her magic on me, said it was because I'm really hard to use magic on. Hey, you should show me some magic, I really like seeing tricks!" Rayos looked at Twilight with a hopeful look.
Twilight looked at him with a less than surprised look and mumbled to herself, "Well that explains a few things... And no, I'm not going to show off my magic." This earned a disappointed groan from both Rayos and Pinkie Pie. "Magic is not for showing off, it is for practical uses only. And besides, I have to look into finding whatever it is that Trixie did to you, see if I can fix it."
Twilight asked Rayos if she could use magic on him again. He, of course, accepted and her horn lit up once more. Rayos was cloaked in another purple glow, and it faded away shortly after. "There, I cast a feather spell on you, It should take off about six hundred pounds. The spell should maintain for about twenty four hours, long enough for me to try and fix this."
Pinkie Pie started waving her hoof around. "Oh Twilight! Why don't we try talking to Trixie! Maybe she could help find the right enchantment. He's looking for her anyways, we could do two things at once!"
Twilight smiled at her friend's suggestion. "Good thinking Pinkie!" Her smile faded and was replaced with confusion as she looked over to Rayos. "But why in Equestria would you be looking for Trixie?"
Rayos responded, "Me and Trixie were traveling together for about a year, but one day she disappeared while I was napping, and I have been looking for her ever since. It's been about five months now, and I really miss traveling with her." His ears flopped down while speaking about Trixie, lowering his head a bit.
"Aw, that's so sad." Pinkie Pie added in
Twilight animated a pen and piece of paper with her magic and started writing something down. "Seems odd she would just leave without notice like that, maybe something was bothering her. I will try to send a message to Canterlot, see if i can get any reports on if she has been in any towns or cities lately. Most keep a tab on who comes in and out, hopefully we can find her that way."
"I would like to see her again, I really miss her." Rayos poked his hoof on the floor.
Pinkie started speaking, "Oh I need to get going, I should be picking up some things for the Cakes. I know! I'll hold you a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party tomorrow, Rayos! Or if you find Trixie by tomorrow, I can hold you a 'You found your friend' party! It would be like having two parties at once!"
He perked up a little at Pinkie Pie's mention of the party. "Sounds like fun, I can't wait. See ya later, Pinkie!"
Pinkie waved a hoof goodbye. "Bye Twilight, bye Rayos!" And she left through the front door.
Twilight waved goodbye as Pinkie was leaving, giving her farewells. "Alright, the letter is done, now I just need a certain dragon to get back, so I can send it out."
When Twilight said 'dragon,' Rayos' attention snapped over to her. "You have a dragon in Ponyville?"
Twilight pointed a hoof towards the center of the library, directing Rayos to take a seat on the cushions placed to the side. "Why yes we do, he is still a baby dragon, and is my personal assistant around the library."
Both ponies took a seat, and Rayos continued the conversation. "So you guys are comfortable with having dragons running around your town?"
"Not really, the town has accepted Spike with a little bit of difficulty, but only because he's still an infant, and even then, some of the others are a little uncomfortable around him. If we had a full sized dragon in town, well there would be wide spread panic."
Rayos seemed a little disappointed by this news. "Why would there be panic? Its not like dragons eat ponies or anything."
"We don't know that, there is so little we understand about dragons. Most ponies are too terrified to be around them long enough to find out anything about them, and I can only find out so much from Spike. He might be a dragon, but he is still too young to know much about his own kind. Me and my parents are actually the ones who raised him, after I hatched him from an egg."
After the mention of hatching Spike, Rayos seemed a little surprised. "How did you get a dragon egg?"
"It was part of the entrance exam to get into Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. Apparently it's a good measure of magic ability to hatch a dragon egg with magic."
"How did the school come across it, then?"
Twilight thought for a moment before answering. "I haven't thought about that before, never crossed my mind to ask... I will have to ask about that next time I speak to Princess Celestia."
Rayos asked a few more questions, passing the time. He seemed to be quite curious about the magic school, and about Spike. Twilight answered all of his questions to the best of her ability. Some time later, the library door opened up, with a little purple dragon entering. "Hey Twilight, I'm back." He did not enter alone however. Three little fillies, a pegasus, a unicorn and an earth pony, burst out of the open door, and into the library.
"Hi Twilight!" The three little ones yelled in unison. Both ponies got up from their seats, and Twilight greeted the girls in return, but not before they took notice of the blue pegasus with her.
The earth pony was the first to speak up, "Hey there mister, I haven't seen you round Ponyville before, what's your name?" She asked him, staring up with big red adorable eyes.
While the fillies were distracted with Rayos, Spike talked to Twilight for a moment. After a bit of groaning on Twilight's end, Spike took off to the kitchen, showing little interest in the new pony inside the library.
"Hello there little ones, I'm Rayos, what's your names?"
"Ah'm Applebloom!" The earth pony declared. Her coat was yellow and she had a fluffy red mane and tail, and a pink bow tie on the back of her head.
"I'm Sweetie Belle!" squeaked the unicorn. She was white as snow with a pink and light-purple mane and tail with miscellaneous curls coming out.
"And I'm Scootaloo!" The pegasus tried to flutter up with her little wings, but barely managed to stay in the air, and landed softly on her hooves. She was a little orange filly with a purple mane and tail, which she kept smooth.
The three fillies began speaking in unison again, "And together we are... The Cutie Mark Crusaders! Yay!"
The shouting of the young fillies shook the library lightly, earning a scolding look from Twilight, after she uncovered her ears. Rayos seemed to be unaffected by the yelling session, instead getting got caught up in their excitement. But shortly after the yelling, he was a little confused. "Whats a Cutie Mark Crusader?" He asked the fillies.
Scootaloo was the first to speak up, "Well it's just us three right now, but were a group of fillies dedicated to finding our special talents!"
Applebloom spoke up next, "Yea, we're all blank flanks, but we aim ta change that!" While saying this, the three crusaders turned and showed the side of their flanks, and they were indeed blank. Rayos took a quick peak over at Twilight, and noticed she had a mark on her flank. Thinking back, there was one on Applejack and Pinkie Pie as well.
"What's your cutie mark mister?" Sweetie Belle asked Rayos, looking up to him, with hope filled eyes.
"Cutie mark..." He stated to himself. He turned to make his side visible, and took a look at his flank. Everypony in the room gasped when he turned. Rayos plainly stated, "I guess I don't have one."
"What happened to your cutie mark!?" asked Sweetie Belle.
He was a little confused at the sudden reactions of the other ponies. "Well uh-" was all he could usher out before he was hit with a wave of questions from the trio.
"How long has your cutie mark been missing? What was your cutie mark? How did you loose it? Was it a disease? Did it get scraped off in an awesome flying accident? How are you gonna get it back?"
After pondering for a bit, Twilight yelled out "GIRLS!" to silence the three fillies. She then turned to Rayos. "I'd like to cast another spell on you. It's going to be a full body scan, is that alright with you?" He simply nodded. "Now stay completely still please." And with that, Twilight lit up her horn and encased him in magic once again.
This time, instead of simply being covered in a purple glow, a wall of magic formed in front of him. It moved and passed through him from his front to his tail, then back again. After getting back, the wall of magic collapsed, and the glow from Twilight's horn stopped. Rayos was a little excited with this new spell of Twilight's, but was disappointed when it ended.
A disappointed look appeared on Twilight's face. "This is worse than I thought."
"Whats wrong with him, Twilight?" Applebloom asked, concern growing in her eyes, along with the other two fillies.
"I can't detect anything clearly, It's all clouded in magic!"
Rayos was at a loss. "What does that mean?" He asked Twilight.
"This means everything about your body has been changed with magic! How much you weigh, what you think, what you look like, all of these things could have been affected, maybe more!" Twilight took a moment to catch her breath and calm down before she continued. "Rayos, do you remember what your cutie mark used to be, or anything about the spells cast on you?"
His facial expression shifted a bit, showing he was clearly thinking of something, but decided not to tell. "Nope, can't really say that I do." Rayos finished with a sheepish smile.
Twilight, too concentrated on the matter at hoof, did not catch onto his shift in behavior, and continued on. "It's almost impossible for me to dispel the enchantments on you without some knowledge about them. Trying to dispel them randomly could affect one, if not all the others, and that would be dangerous. We need to contact Trixie as soon as possible. Spike!"
The purple dragon came out of the kitchen. "Yea yea, I'm coming," he stated, brushing off a bit of gem crumbs from his mouth.
"All set now, Spike?" She asked the dragon, with a hint of irritation in her voice. Spike simply shrugged and held his claw out in response. Twilight grabbed the letter she wrote earlier with her magic, and handed it to Spike. "Before you send it, I just have to change the destination." She lit up her horn and engulfed Spike's stomach in magic.
Spike griped his stomach in minor pain. "Ugh, that always makes me feel sick..." He complained, before engulfing the note in a green flame. The note turned to a sparkling dust, and flew out the window.
"Sorry Spike, but I have to do that to change the destination, this letter was meant for Canterlot's city hall."
"Could have got the princess to send it to them..." Spike complained further.
"Whoa whoa whoa! What did you do to him!" Rayos said, acting a little defensive of Spike.
Twilight was taken back a little at his sudden outburst. "I enchanted his flames so they send smaller objects out to a specific destination. It may hurt his stomach a little when I cast it, but its completely harmless otherwise, I assure you." Rayos seemed more eased by this information.
"That's a pretty cool spell, I'm willing to bet you're almost as good with spells as Trixie!"
Twilight simply smiled. "Yes I'm sure... Anyways we should get a reply from them within a day or two. If only there was something I could do for you in the meantime..."
Applebloom jumped up with an idea. "Ah know, we could go see Zecora! Maybe she could help, she seems ta know a lot about potions and stuff! I bet she could whip up something for him right quick!" The other two fillies agreed with her.
"That's a great idea Applebloom, but I don't have enough time to take him there myself, I have a busy week ahead of me."
"Well me and the gal's here could bring him there, I visit Zecora all the time!"
"The Everfree Forest is a dangerous place, I can't let you four go alone!"
Rayos decided to join the conversation. "I could keep them safe, I know a thing or two about self defense."
"But we don't even know how physically capable you are, these enchantments could have a negative effect on your strength and stamina!"
Rayos scanned the room, and his eyes caught the table in the middle, as a grin grew on his face. "I have more than enough strength, here watch." He walked up to the table, and swung a hoof at it, sending it shooting across the room, and into a wall, shattering upon impact.
The children were surprised, with wow's coming from all of them, but Twilight had a different reaction. "WHY DID YOU DESTROY MY TABLE!" She yelled out in confusion and anger.
"To show you that I am still strong," Rayos responded.
"You didn't have to destroy my stuff! Now I have to get a new one!"
Rayos chuckled a little. "Oh... right, guess I should have thought that through more."
Twilight rubbed a hoof to her temple. "That might have been an idea. And yes you are really strong, but there could be lots of other things wrong with you, I still can't let you go out there!"
Spike decided to add in his thoughts, "Hey maybe I could go with them, you still need a few herbs from Zecora, and my flame can scare off most of the creatures there."
Twilight was about to say something, but then rubbed her head again, suppressing her growing headache, and let out an aggravated sigh. "Ugh fine! but let your families know where you're going, and come right back!"
The three fillies cheered at this news. "Cutie Mark Crusader Escorts is a go!" They all screamed in unison.
Scootaloo piped up, "Now lets bring you to Zecora's and see if we can get our cutie marks!" And with that, they started pushing Rayos towards the door.
Rayos, still slightly in shock from the eagerness of the little fillies, barely managed to say goodbye before he was forced out the door.
"Well guess I'll be joining them, see ya in a bit Twi!" And Spike chased after them.
Twilight waved goodbye to Spike before he left. "Stay safe..." She said before he closed the door. She piled the wood from her shattered table up neatly in a pile to be dealt with later before walking back up the stairs, to return to a book she was reading. She had difficulty focusing on it, as she was still worried about the children, especially Spike. "I hope I made the right decision..." She said to herself, before trying to focus on her book again.