Rich Soil

Chapters

1: Day One, Day Two, Day Red And Blue
2: Shiny
3.1: Pen and Parchment
3.2: Pen and Parchment cont'd
4.1: A Horse of a Different Color
5.1: Keep Calm and Soldier On
5.2: Keep Calm and Soldier On cont'd
6: A Bird in the Boutique is Worth...
7: When Clouds Can't Make Up Their Mind
0: Prologue
4.2: A Horse of a Different Color cont'd

1: Day One, Day Two, Day Red And Blue

Day One

Oh, I am so nervous. Teacher said I have to see her for a very special test tomorrow. She also asked me to stop calling her teacher, but she won't be reading my journal anytime soon, so I should be safe. She says she's proud of me and my studies are going well, but there's an important lesson I'm missing. What am I getting wrong? I thought I passed the basic levitation, transformation, and teleportation tests with flying colors!

I guess I'll find out what the test is tomorrow, but the waiting is killing me. Well, the waiting is not literally killing me, that would be plain morbid. I just mean the waiting is really hard. I wonder if there's a spell to make time go faster. So it's getting late and I can't sleep and I started rambling again, oh horseapples!

Maybe it won't be that bad, maybe the test is just some simple review of everything I've learned. Maybe this test is just putting it all together. Or, what if the test was just to make me realize that I shouldn't worry so much, that I should learn how to have more patience.

Teacher would be waiting on our hill for me and I'd be all nervous and then she'd ask, "Now my student, are we ready to begin the test?" I'd puff out my chest and confidently (yeah right!) reply, "Whatever it is, I'm sure that I can handle it!" Teacher would then reply with a giggle and say, "Good! Then you've passed the test. Now then, my student, what have we learned about ourselves?" I'd get so angry, telling her how hard it was not knowing what the test was, but then I'd laugh with her. That would be just like Luna. Oh hey, I guess calling her by her name isn't so hard after all.

Day Two

Wings. I don't understand how some ponies can deal with these things. They've been getting more and more in my way. Last night I woke up freezing cold because my blanket was dangling at the end of that difficult digit. Oh well, if I keep them at my side and never use them, maybe I'll be able to get through one day without having them ruin my ability to get through doors. I still have no idea what to do about them rebelliously interrupting my sleep.

I know, I should talk to Rainbow Dash, she seems to really know how to handle her wings, and I'm not unhappy to have them. I've just been under a lot of stress since the Princess asked me to stay in Canterlot. It seems she has a special assignment for me and I need to stay here while the rest of my friends go back to Ponyville. I'm sure it's nothing, and I did ask Princess Celestia what I needed to do to prepare, but she only laughed and said all I needed to do was bring myself. Surely there has to be some preparation, some work I can do before the assignment begins. Instead, Celestia insisted that I spend time with my friends.

I'll bet it's an initiation. Some way that I have to prove I'm ready to be a princess. Who knows what it could be? Oh well, I guess I'll just have to learn what it is tomorrow. Huh, I don't feel so bad about it anymore. I've been through so many challenges and trials with my friends that I'm sure whatever it is, we'll be able to get through it together.

I'll talk with them tonight and speak with Celestia tomorrow.

Day Red and Blue

Dawn was tired. He was walking through Canterlot gardens towards the woods and he was exhausted. Maybe it was that he hadn't found the right position to sleep in. Maybe he was tired because the summer night had made him too cold without a blanket, and too hot with a blanket. He stopped in his groggy walk and shook his head. That wasn't it. The real reason he couldn't sleep was because he had spent all night being anxious for the big new assignment that lay ahead of him, just past the gardens, just into the woods. The sleepless night hadn't been fruitful, either. Despite playing out at least twenty different possible assignments that wait for him, he hadn't been convinced that he had thought of all the possible assignments, nor was he confident that the real assignment lay in his current possibility profile.

"Stupid Dawn, " he muttered to himself as he continued to trot, "If you'd just learn to take things easy, let things take their course." While he tried to convince himself, he knew that he wasn't that kind of pony. He loved nothing more than to discover, to understand, and this assignment was an unknown quantity.

"Why, my student! It is unlike you to forgo a greeting to your teacher." Dawn yelped in surprise. Princess Luna approached him from the forest. How long she had been there, he couldn't say. He swore she had materialized from out of a tree, or perhaps she had perfected some invisibility spell.

"Luna! I mean, Princess, I mean, Teacher!" Dawn fumbled for the right words. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there!"

"Do not be alarmed, dear student, I am not offended. I am, however, concerned. You seem to be troubled."

"I-I'm sorry. I just don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I can complete the task you have for me."

"But you do not know what the task is. Are you not confident in your abilities?"

"No, I mean yes, I am confident...about what I know, that is. This assignment is unknown. I honestly am not aware of whether or not my current skills will be able to accomplish it, or whether I'll be able to learn what I need to." Luna looked at him intently, discomfort grew on his face as she simply continued to look at him. After a moment that Dawn was convinced lasted a full year, Luna spoke.

"Does this mean that you will not attempt to accomplish what I have for you?" Dawn swallowed hard, then shook his head firmly.

"Whatever it is, I will give it everything I have. And, I'll do what I can to get what I don't. Have." Luna immediately softened and smiled.

"Do not, dear student, ever be afraid of the unknown. For, what you do not know can be discovered," she came close and put a hoof on his shoulder. Her sister had recently told her that this could be very comforting for ponies. She was relieved to see that her sister seemed to be correct. "Furthermore, you are never alone in what you must accomplish. There is always help if you ask for it." Luna continued to walk through the forest, putting some distance between herself and Dawn

"So, I don't have to do this alone?" Dawn called out after his teacher. Luna paused, turned her head toward him, and winked.

"Just wait until you see what the assignment is," she called back. Dawn still couldn't decide if that was good or bad.

Luna stopped for a moment, she seemed distracted. Dawn stopped trotting and took in his surroundings. The path they had been taking lead through the woods on the mountain had split and merged many times. He would be lost if his teacher weren't here. The morning air was unusually crisp for early summer. A unicorn's winter, he remembered. An old phrase for a cold front that would roll in after summer had already arrived. He was just starting to catch a glimpse of the breaking day when he realized the two of them had been stopped for a few minutes. "Teacher, I have to ask, are we lost?"

"Oh? Not at all. It has been a long time since we've been here and I was just remembering the fun we used to have," Luna replied. She turned and seemed to be excited. "I'm sure we remember the way." Dawn hadn't heard his teacher refer to herself in the Royal sense for some time. He was starting to think his teacher was acting strange, but he got full confirmation when she suddenly giggled and galloped up a small path to the right.

This small path was heading straight up the mountain. Dawn Lowered his head and struggled to keep up. The small path widened into an ancient road. Dawn took no notice of the roots and bushes that had made the path uneven and the stone walls and pillars that the forest greedily claimed as its own. As he was slowing down, feeling near his limit, he heard voices ahead and saw a blinding glow beyond the edge of the forest. The edge of the forest? He was sure that the forest covered the entire mountain, except for Canterlot Castle and the mountain's peak. But, as he continued onward, slowing to a canter, he saw the forest's edge. He couldn't see what was beyond the forest, however. He was exhausted, sweat was dripping into his eyes, and the morning sun showed no mercy to anypony foolish enough to trot haphazardly into its rays from the comfort of the forest canopy.

He was stopped short and fell to his haunches as he trotted into Luna, who had stopped and was excitedly talking with somepony else that he couldn't see. Luna stopped abruptly in shock and she slowly turned her head. Dawn, realizing what had just happened, was too embarrassed to notice his surroundings. The clearing he was in had a white stone as its foundation. A brilliant white and gold-laced palace protruded from the mountain. While the forest had made some encroachments at the edges of this courtyard, but for the most part the clearing and its structure remained unspoiled.

"Oh my, are you alright?" A warm, familiar voice called out from behind Luna's astonished expression. The radiant, smiling face that seemed to sprout over Luna's neck made Dawn flush with embarrassment. The amused look on her face made him want to dig through the stone floor and hide.

"Princess Celestia!" Dawn moaned, slowly becoming aware that he wasn't alone. That was it, he thought, cart me off to magic kindergarten, I'm a failure! His assignment was going to be an automatic failure. At least in magic kindergarten he would only have to deal with the anger of his professors, not the present situation. In magic kindergarten, this single moment would only haunt him, unlike now, where he was actually aware of having run into the rump of one of two of the most powerful ponies in all of Equestria. Haunting was good, the present situation was too much.

Celestia sighed, "And here I thought my subjects actually enjoyed speaking with their princess."

"Now sister, you know I made mention of how easily Dawn gets flustered." Dawn's hind hooves settled under him as he sat down and covered his head with his forelegs. They even talked about him behind his back.

"Now that's just cruel," an unfamiliar voice added its opinion. He heard the clopping of hooves as the ponies around him shifted their positions. "You must be Dawn, right? I've never seen the princesses be so mean." Dawn moved one of his forelegs and he looked up with one eye to see a mare offer him a hoof up. Dawn raised himself up and saw she had a purple coat and a darker purple mane with a few streaks of pink. More than that, she was a unicorn and had wings, she was an alicorn. Even more than that, she was beautiful.

"I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle." She shook his hoof, still holding it from helping him up. "You can call me Twilight, though. I think being called a princess will never stop being awkward. But you have to see this, it's fascinating. Celestia calls it the palace of the sun." She trotted off, engrossed in the living history surrounding her. The faintest hint of a smile showed as Princess Luna looked at her sister and winked. Princess Celestia put a hoof to her muzzle to stifle a giggle. Twilight looked back, realizing nopony was following her.

"Are you coming Dawn? You must be exhausted, Dawn! The rest of you is deep blue, but your face is turning purple! Did Luna fly here and leave you to walk your way up?" One of her wings unfolded itself to add emphasis to the fact that Princess Luna had wings and Dawn did not. Dawn fell forward this time, the knees on his forelegs kept him from falling down completely. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both broke out laughing.

Author's Note

-Write daily until Season 4

2: Shiny

Unexpected Beginnings

Roughly four hundred years ago, a particular mountain changed, which mountains are not in the habit of doing. Mountains also don't worry too much about their appearance, so the changes weren't particularly tragic. Altering a mountain is quite a feat in itself, and the forces that did the altering might have taken a moment to appreciate their accomplishment. They might have, if they hadn't been so focused on each other. As these two forces lashed out at each other, the air shook and the earth quaked, and a new crevice was opened in this mountain. This new crevice allowed light to shine into the mountain where light hadn't been since time remembered. Most of this light illuminated a rather dank and unimpressive cave. A single shaft of light, however, pierced a key-hole sized crack in the cave and happened to bounce onto one of the mountain's secrets. Bouncing, instead of ending, meant that this shaft of light illuminated something spoken of but rarely seen- the day-stars.

The Day-Stars

It was nearly pitch black. A single form lay on her side, sleeping peacefully. At least she had been sleeping, until a pesky, bright, shining decided it would annoy her. She shifted, rolling over, but the light was there too. Who told the light it could make her get up, she whined to herself. Unfortunately, the light seemed to only grow brighter. Whimpering, she got up and stretched her hind legs. "Stupid light, no fair!" She rubbed her eyes and opened them. "What, what's this?" Points of light surrounded her. She felt as though the night sky was surrounding her, the stars swallowing both sky and ground until nothing else was left. Trying to find what was up or down, she focused on a small group of the lights. This made her dizzy and she fell back onto her side. The lights were getting brighter, and wherever she was, she wanted to get away. Her eyes adjusted to the dark and she started scampering where she saw solid ground cutting its way through the looming stars. She couldn't see the path too well yet, but guessed that wherever she couldn't see the stars, the path must be there. A sharp yelp rang out, letting her know that what she just stepped on wasn't the ground.

"Watch it!" a strange voice hissed.

"Oh. Hey, where are we? Who are you?" Her frightened questions came out fast as she as she tried to piece together what was happening.

"Go away, I don't have to get up yet. They haven't even whistled food."

"Wait, what? What's going on?"

"What's going on is you stepped on me, and now you're being annoying! Go away and let me sleep!" The form shifted and two green eyes glared up at her. She lowered her head with a whimper and continued to follow the only path she could see available to her. Wherever the path lead, it wasn't near the annoying lights and mean, shrill voices. After stopping, she could now see other forms, some stirring, some barely moving. They were sprawled out along the path. Sometimes there were groups of them huddled together, some were just stretched out in the middle of this path, forcing her to slow down and carefully lope around them.

As she approached the end of the path, she started to squint. The end of the path was brightening and the light started to sting her eyes. She pressed on and felt a rush of warmth as she crossed the threshold to somewhere new.

Being blinded, she first noticed the thick smell of food surrounding her. She clutched her stomach as it churned. She took a deep breath to draw in the smell and doubled over. The delicious smell became intoxicating and then nauseating as her hunger and nose overwhelmed her.

The second thing she noticed was the sound of a piercing whistle. Immediately after the whistle there was a commotion all around her. She cracked open one eye just in time to see a blurry mass rushing toward her. Letting out a yelp, she lept out of its path, finding some support against a wall. Today did not feel like it was going to be a good day. Though she was leaning heavily, she was standing now and took the opportunity open her eye wider.

She found herself in a cave. It was large, probably not as large as the night sky she had come from, but it held line after line of tables with benches. The commotion around her was a wall of dogs that had come rushing by and were now fighting each other. On the other side of the confusion a line snaked deeper into the cave.

A new whistle called out, and this whistle hurt. Both of her hands immediately held her ears in the same way a pup might yank her hand away after touching a pot that had been used on a cooking fire. The commotion in front of her stopped, many of the dogs clutched their head like her. A harsh voice quickly filled the silence that the whistle had left in its wake.

"Mind your manners you mangy mutts!" A large, comically strong dog in metal armor that covered his body pushed forward.

"But master, he pushed me!" one of the dogs cried out from the crowd.

"Oh he did, eh? And I'll bet you weren't pushing or shoving your way back at all. Or do you still have something to complain about?" the guard barked. The entire crowd remained silent. "Good then. That's what I like to hear, nothing. No complaining, no whining. Because when I hear a big ruckus, me and Old Whistler have to come out and see what's what." The guard stopped and waited. No response came back from the crowd. The guard came up from all fours and stood erect. Standing erect, he was ears and shoulders above any dog in the crowd. "Now then, who's ready for food? That's it, nice and easy. Form your line, you first, now you..."

She stopped listening as she watched the dogs starting to fill up the benches. Many were scrambling for a place to sit. She stared and and arched her neck to try and find one friendly face, one familiar set of ears, but they were all strangers to her. It was then she noticed that the dogs were coming back with bowls, and in those bowls was food. Her stomach growled, but she was already moving. She found her way in line and tried to figure out what to do next.

She was whimpering by the time it was her turn. Some of the others barked at her to be quiet. She didn't care, though. The dizzying lights, the big cave, almost getting trampled, all her woes came out in the mournful cry of a poor, hungry dog, literally begging to be fed. The server wasn't impressed, though. When the hungry dog reached her paws to take the bowl that was being put down on the counter, a metal spoon rapped her paw.

“You don't get no chow 'till the bowl's on the counter!” The starving dog clutched her paw and fixed the owner of the angry voice with a pitiful gaze, widening her eyes and quieting her whimpering to a whisper. The server contorted what seemed to be a permanent scowl into something nastier. “Don't ya think those eyes'll get you one kibble, neither.” The server barked the last words and shook the spoon angrily, daring any dog to challenge her (the starving pooch thought that the server was a she) authority over putting bowls down on the serving counter. The bowl clinked on the counter and the hungry dog lowered her head and stared up at the bowl-master. “Well, go on,” the bowl-master huffed. The bowl was gone and she was trying to find a seat before the sentence had even been finished.

“Psst, hey!” She stopped, looking around. “Hey, you!” Her nose swiveled around, searching for the source of this new distraction. Three new dogs were approaching her quickly. The one talking was wearing a red vest that had gray-brown fur and was a medium-sized dog. There was something about his voice that she didn't like. He sounded too soothing to be scary, but too sharp to be honest. She snarled as they approached, they must be after her food, she thought. “Hey there, we don't want your food.” As the dog talked again and moved closer, she put her food on the ground and started gobbling it down greedily. “Don't do that, you'll make yourself sick. Hey, aren't you listening?” She looked up and continued to chew, trying to say something between bites.

“Thish ish mime.” Ignoring anything she learned as a pup, she tried to talk with her mouth full.

“I told you, we don't want your food.”

“Yeah, we don't want your food, we want you to get another bowl for us.” The shrill voice came from the smallest dog of the trio who had beige fur.

“Yeah, we want more food.” The biggest dog spoke next. His deep voice boomed even though she was sure he wasn't talking loudly for a dog his size. He was blue-gray but was so stooped over that he was only about as tall as the dog in the red vest.

“So what, what do I get out of it?” She gulped down what she was eating before trying to talk this time.

“Tell you what,” the dog with the red vest narrowed his green, keen eyes, “Get us a bowl of food from that meanie, and you can run with us.”

“So what?” she scoffed.

“Look around,” came the reply, “don't you see we're not all the same?”

“Yeah, we came here from different packs. You need us, you need friends,” the big one stepped forward.

“Sure I need friends, but they don't need to be you,” she bit back.

“Hey, who do you think you're talking to?” The short one jumped angrily at her and she snarled back. The one in the red jacket caught them both by the collar, keeping them at arm's length.

“Enough! Fine, you want to be like the others, you can fend for yourself. Fido, Spot, let's go!”

The three left her sitting by herself and walked over to the benches to start eating. After a few moments, she plodded up to the bowl-master and started talking.

“Rover, why'd we try and make friends with her?” the small one whined. Rover sighed at his companion's shrill inquiry, and looked at his red jacket for a moment.

“Because, Spot, we're new to this pack. We need more friends if we're going to do well here.”

“Yeah Spot,” the large one lifted his head from his bowl, spilling some kibble as he talked, “Things aren't like they used to be, we need friends here.”

All three jumped when bowls of food plunked down on the table in front of them. Rover, Fido, and Spot's eyes all widened. She stood at the edge of the table, looking at the dogs and waiting for something to happen. Rover was the first to speak.

“We, we can just have these?” She nodded. “Why, what did you do?” She shrugged. The other two didn't wait for a response but started fighting over which bowl had the most food and which one was going to get it.

“I don't know, that's what friends do for each other, right? I don't recognize any of these dogs. I guess I just need friends too.”

“We've been at this pack for a week, did you just get here?” She shrugged again. “Don't you know anything?” She lowered her head and shook it mournfully, looking up at the other three with sad eyes.

"I remember what I can do, but can't remember why I can do it." She whimpered a bit at the end, just to get the point across.

“I'm Rover, this is Spot and that big one's Fido.” The quarreling ceased for an instant as the other two waved a paw in greeting. Just as quickly as they had stopped, thought, they started fighting again. “What's your name?”

“I don't know! All I know is that I woke up in the cave over there.” She pointed a paw at the door.

“Oh, the day-stars. They tell us when the day gets going. I never heard of a diamond dog without a name.” Her eyes started to water.

“Don't look so sad! You're now running with the pack that's gonna run this site. We're great diggers, and as soon as the other packs realize how great we are, we're gonna be top-dog.” Spot lifted his head above the melee to shout.

“Yeah! Top-dog.”

A whistle pierced the entire hall and about half the dogs started to howl. “I hate that whistle. When we run the show, no whistles, only barks if they need it,” Spot growled. “Alright, time for work. But first, this extra food from our new finder.” Fido and Spot switched bowls a few times until Rover took one and started eating from it. The other three grabbed the closest bowl and did the same.

Working Like a Dog

She plopped down, exhausted. Work had started as soon as they finished eating their second bowl of food; and the work hadn't stopped since. She had made new friends but hadn't gotten to spend any time with them. They had all been separated as soon as work had begun. Instead of learning more about her new friends, she was busy digging, stopping only to wipe sweat off of her brow. She felt alone as the sea of dogs continued to dig through the earth. Buckets were being passed back and forth behind the main line of diggers to move the dirt out of the way as the shaft grew.

She tried to steal off and take a break, but one of the guards barked, “And where might you be going?” She said that it was her turn for the buckets, and the guard growled and pointed to a place in the line of buckets that was empty. She joined the line and started passing buckets of dirt down the line.

After passing a few minutes by passing buckets of dirt, a dog walked passed her, walking toward the end of the cave. After a few more minutes, another dog passed. It was after the third dog passed her that she thought something must going on. Looking at where the dogs were coming from, she saw two sets of track being laid. On one set was a mine cart that the dirt was being dumped in. As the track got too close for those at the end of the track, they were being sent forward to rest for a few minutes in a small area in front of her.

She became more and more anxious as the tracks slowly approached her. As rail by rail was laid, she became more and more desperate to do anything other than passing buckets. As the pressure built up, she almost yelped for joy when the guard told her to go take her break.

The smell of dirt and other dogs was almost overwhelming as she sat down. She lapped at one of the water bowls, she felt cooler. The pressure that had been building didn't go away, though. If anything, the longer she sat, the more anxious she became. Looking around, she asked some of the dogs if they were feeling any different. Maybe somedog was feeling like she was. They mostly ignored her, a few shaking their head to say 'no'. This made her more anxious. Why couldn't any of the other dogs feel it? What was going on?

Calming herself down a little bit, she took in her surroundings. Dogs were rushing to and fro, but none of them seemed to be going anywhere in particular. Other dogs were working and there didn't seem to be any trouble. She closed her eyes and tried listening next. Any sound that seemed out of place might give her a clue. She concentrated. Around her she heard dogs lapping water and others talking. She heard the clackity-clack of a mine cart in the distance as it was sent away to dump its load of dirt. Her ears twitched as she focused her ears the other direction. She heard the soft clawing of dirt as dozens of claws scraped at the end of the mine.

Now she felt really anxious. Everything was going the way it should. Nothing seemed out of place. If it wasn't her sight and it wasn't her sound, what was it that she was feeling? She tried not to use her sense of sight or sound anymore, to concentrate on what else could be making her feel so nervous. A pull, not from her sight, not from her hearing, not from her nose, but from something else, caught her attention. It was a pull, and it was to her... left. Left? She opened her eyes and looked to the left. She wanted to go in that direction, but couldn't tell why. She shrugged, got up, and went to her left. She reached the other side of the shaft and looked at it. It was a cave wall, but as she drew near, she wanted to keep going.

A quick check confirmed that none of the guards were paying her any attention, so she started digging. The more she dug, the more she became possessed to continue on. She couldn't describe it, but she felt she was getting close to something, something important.

If time was passing, she didn't notice it. As she was digging getting further and further into the earth, the outside world seemed to get farther and farther away. She could barely hear the work going on outside, and her impromptu tunnel was narrowing. She couldn't see anything, but she didn't need to see. The force had grown so intense it was almost as if she was floating along as it pulled her.

Suddenly, her claws scratched something hard. Without even thinking, she widened the narrow tunnel and started digging around whatever her claws had reached. She was panting now, trying to get cool, but she had to see what this was. She dug out a side chamber for extra dirt as she continued to dig out the edges of the strange object. It suddenly came loose. She tried to jump out of the way, but her tail got caught underneath as it fell. She let out a yelp and then a series of whimpers as she scrambled to push the thing off with her hind legs.

With a little effort, it rolled off of her tail and onto the dirt floor. She dusted it off and felt what it was. It felt like...a rock? A stupid rock? All her hard work was for a rock? She smelled it. It smelled like dirt. It smelled like... a waste of time. When she held it, all the anxiety and pressure seemed to melt away. Furious, she growled at it and started barking. The lack of reaction from the rock made her angrier. Picking up the rock with a yelp, she flung the stupid thing as hard as she could. She heard a muffled crack as it hit something.

She lay down, realizing how tired she was, and started crawling her way back. It was hot and getting hard to breathe, but she felt her way back... to... the rock... again. She growled, but when she picked it up, a wave of relief washed over her. The rock seemed to be lighter now, and she guessed it must have broken up a bit. She started running back down her tunnel and found the second half of the rock. As she picked it up, she felt another wave of relief.

Coming back into the light, she saw that work had stopped. All of the dogs seemed to be loping their way away from the digging site and back to the great cave they had come from. She fumbled with the two rocks and fit them together. There didn't seem to be any pieces missing. Why should that be important, she questioned silently. A glint of something sparkling caught her eye, and there seemed to be a shard of something shiny in one of the halves. She banged one half against the other and it split open. A hypnotizing gleam sparkled as most of this half crumbled to dirt around two perfect gems. She scooped out the contents and found that the two gems that barely fit in her paws. She gasped and slowly turned her head to the other half of the rock. She picked up the other half and hit it against one of the mine carts nearby. This time, as the rock crumbled, she held pulled out a warped and dusty collection of papers. These, though, were what she felt impressed by. These dusty, drab papers, were shiny to her for a reason she couldn't understand or explain. She sat, dog-tired and utterly confused. She was growing concerned that strange things were happening to her that she couldn't understand. The sudden smell of cooking food made her perk up instantly, however, and she scampered off to find the source of the tantalizing smell.

A Friend Indeed

A sea of smelly dogs had already piled back into the great hall. She looked at the line and saw that it already stretched all the way to the entryway to the day-starts. She started plodding dejectedly to the back of the line, sadly realizing the she was almost in the exact same position she was this morning. She still couldn't remember why she was here, and she couldn't remember how she learned things like digging and tracking. The only difference between this morning and now was that now she was dog-tired. She also couldn't figure out why she had gone through so much trouble for some beat up old papers. Okay, maybe there were two things different than this morning. She starting whimpering below her breath.

“Psst, hey! Hey, you!” Her nose swiveled around, forgetting her woes as her ears picked up on a familiar voice. “Over here,” Rover was motioning with a fore-paw to where he was standing in line. Fido and Spot were standing with him. Her head perked up and she quickly looked around. They weren't standing at the front of the chow line, but neither were they anywhere near the back of it.

“Really?” her face softened from a glower to a hopeful smile.

“Of course! We already told you - you run with us now.” She started prancing excitedly to where Rover was in line, but stopped short when two dogs behind Rover's group started growling. Fido turned and faced down one of the two dogs. His deep, threatening growl was easily louder than the other two combined. The other dog's growl was cut short as he yelped. Spot had nipped his heel without being noticed. Spot was facing off with the other dog now. “Don't worry about those two, they just need to learn some manners. Now, come quick!” Rover waved a paw dismissively. She hurried in to line between Rover and Fido.

“What's all this then?” The commanding bark came from the other side of the line. It was the same guard that had quieted and organized the chow line this morning. She shrank back, but Rover stood up taller and turned around to face the guard. She was shocked at what came out of his mouth next.

“Francis. Nothing at all's wrong. These fine dogs and we just had a... misunderstanding.” She couldn't tell if she wanted to laugh at the guard's name or hide at how Rover almost purred what he said. She was convinced that dogs shouldn't be able to talk like that. The guard put a paw to his face and slowly dragged the paw down. This made the dog's face stretch and snap back into place like it was made of rubber.

“Rover, how many times do I 'ave to tell you, don't call me that?”

“But isn't that your real na--,” Rover was cut short.

“Besides, if you get into trouble, I get into trouble with her.” The guard, Francis, didn't elaborate on who “her” was. “The fact that you three are on loan from your pack means that if you get into trouble, we might lose territory rights.”

“No no no, Francis. We're good boys, aren't we?” Rover looked at the two dogs that started the confrontation. Spot nodded furiously and echoed the assurance.

“Yeah, we're good boys!” Francis looked over at the two dogs behind Rover's group. The two dogs looked at each other, looked at Rover, then up at the menacing guard. They started nodding agreement, slinking back a little.

“Right. Well then, good. And Rover,” Rover perked up at hearing his name, “Stay out a trouble. You get me into trouble and you'll wish you were a dead dog.” Francis leaned in close for emphasis.

“Absolutely Francis, you're the boss.” Rover was actually looking scared.

“Stop. Calling. ME...,” Francis sighed, dragged his paw down his face, and huffed back to his post.

The hungry dog looked at Rover. He looked back at her.

“You know what? You need a name.”

“But I have a name.”

“A name's no good if you can't remember it. We'll give you a new one. So we can call you something.” She remembered something and reached into her pocket.

“You want to give me a name, right?” Rover nodded. “Friends give things to each other, right?” Rover looked at Fido and Spot. They shrugged at each other and all nodded. She pulled the two jewels out of her pocket. The three dog's eyes glazed over and went wide. The three drew closer and she pulled her paw back a little. Fido spoke up first.

“You'd give those to us? But, why?”

“If I give these to you, I want you to remember that we're friends.”

“What, don't you want 'em?” Rover asked.

“There's something that's more important to me,” she replied.

“Ooohh, they're shiny,” Spot's eyes glistened has he leaned in for a closer look.

“Because I don't have a name, I don't know where I am, and if you promise me that we're friends, I'd call it a fair trade.” Rover nodded.

“Of course, we already said so. Don't you believe us?” She clutched the gems and held out her paw. Rover held out his two paws, and she placed the two gems into them.

“You're right Spot,” he said, “They are shiny.” He stopped and looked up at her. “That's it! That's what we'll call you. Shiny.”

Shiny's tail started to wag.

Rover reached into his vest and pulled out a collar studded with gems. He bent the collar and bit down gently on it right next to a gem. The leather squeaked and the gem came out with a pop. Rover tossed the gem for to Fido, who caught it and glared at it greedily. Smiling, Fido reached into a pocket inside his own vest. He too pulled out a collar. Placing the gem on an empty slot in the collar, Fido gently bit down on the leather and the gem. A squeak and pop let him know that the gem was seated.

Rover had already removed another gem and was comparing it to one of the ones Shiny had given him. He bit down on the gem. For a few seconds, nothing happened. After a sudden crack, however, part of the gem sheared off. Shiny watched with amazement as Rover spit out some small shards, leaving a flat, smooth surface where his jaw had been. She was lost in wondering how such a crude instrument could leave such a perfect cut when a flurry of barks and yelps broke out behind her. She let out a yelp herself and turned around to see the two dogs from earlier. They were holding Spot down and cruelly nipping at him. They let go, however, when and ear-splitting whistle pierced the air. All the dogs whimpered and howled at the sound. Shiny laid her head into the dirt and covered her ears. The whistle's chain clinked as Francis spit it out. He ran up to the commotion.

“Can't I have two minutes of peace and quiet?” he demanded. One of his massive paws reached out and lifted up one of the two dogs causing the disturbance. The dog flailed and whimpered, trying to look away so he didn't meet the Francis' eyes. “Right, what's so important that Old Whistler and I 'ave t' come out and make an appearance?” The dog being held stopped struggling and slowly twisted to the right. The other dog lowered his head and spoke.

“M-master,” he stuttered, “The new ones, the ones from the other pack, th-they're hiding gems they found in our c-c-cave.” Francis dropped the first dog. He fell with a thud and scampered behind his friend, peeking his head out only a little in order to see what was going on. Francis wheeled on Rover and his friends. Rover's ears wilted. The other two crouched submissively.

“Rooover?”

“Y-yes sir?”

“Just hand it over, and we'll pretend this never happened.”

“B-but what do you me-”

“NOW!” Rover looked down at his paws pathetically, and held out his collar. As he held out the collar, the gem caught the dim firelight of the chow hall and came alive in a blaze of blue. “You know the rules Rover, all gems go to the guards. The guards give the gems to the stockpile, and...” Rover cut him short.

“Sir,” he whimpered, “this is all I have left from my pack, please don't take it!”

“Rules are rules Rover.” Francis moved to take the collar when snapping jaws made him pull it back instinctively. With a fury that no one knew (including Shiny) she had, Shiny snapped at Francis' paw, and jumped in between them. She was barking madly.

“How dare you? I found those fair and square. I get to do with them what I want, and you can't just take what doesn't belong to you. That's all Rover's got from his home, his own den, you hear me? You think you can just take it away? Where are your manners? Were you raised by HYENAS? Hey, look at me!” Francis' eyes were fixed somewhere else; he was staring at the ground. Shiny didn't care what he was looking at, and started growling, instead of barking, to catch her breath. Francis boxed her ear faster than such a large dog should be able to. She went sprawling. He reached for the ground with one paw and snatched Shiny's scruff with his other paw before she could recover. He started dragging her off as Shiny kept up her verbal assault of insults and protests. The pack of Rover, Spot, and Fido followed behind, whimpering for mercy.

Digging Deeper

Shiny was hoisted into the air like a feather pillow. Her paws clambered for footing on thin air.

“Ma'am, there's something I need you to see.”

Rover, Fido, and Spot were huddled together in the corner. Francis and Shiny were near the edge of a jewel studded cave. A red satin rug ran from the entrance to the cave to a throne in the middle of the cave. A line of small braziers marked either edge of the satin rug as it led from the cave's entrance to the throne. A number of larger braziers formed a ring around the edge of the cavern, dimly lighting its expanse. Shiny held her paws over her eyes as they adjusted from the near blackness of the tunnel to the new light source.

“Francis, my dear. The only thing I see is you is brutalizing a poor pup.” The new voice was wizened but not weak. The voice was soft, but not because it had to be. Though it was hard for Shiny to pick it out, it was as if the owner was purposely talking quietly.

“Ma'am, she...”

“You are my loyal hound, Francis. You have served me well by keeping the workers in line and on the job. Now, we are close to finding the great vein. Don't make me question your judgment.”

“No Ma'am.” Francis carefully lowered Shiny.

“Now, what is it you have brought me, child?”

“May I?”

“Well come on, I'll fall asleep if you wait any longer. You know how us elders love our naps. I was actually dreaming of being young and enjoying some vast, green, fields before you disturbed me.”

“I apologize-” Francis started to approach the throne, but was cut short.

“Oh, there you go again!” The hooded figure on the throne clapped a paw on one of the throne's arm rests and leaned forward on a staff. The figure pushed to her hind legs and swiftly approached Francis. Shiny looked at Francis. He gulped and went to one knee. “Honestly! What are you doing now?”

“Groveling, your highness.” The cloaked figure rapped Francis' helmet with the staff. The blow was so swift and strong that Shiny could hear the ring dying away for a long time afterward.

“Well, stop it. Now, for the final time, what have you brought me?” Francis got to his feet.

“Ma'am, the new workers you asked for. One of them found this.” Shiny patted her vest for her papers. She struggled when she realized that Francis was handing them over to the cloaked figure. That must have been what he was looking at on the ground. The cloaked figure gasped and lowered her hood to reveal an old face with white, spiky fur. One of her eyes had a scar and was the color of cloudy milk. Both of the eyes went wide with astonishment. She stared at the papers, then the pup, then the papers again.

“It's you! Yes, it's you! Oh, I know about what you did to the serving bitch earlier. Don't worry though, I'm not mad. I was actually having you watched, but I never thought you'd find anything so soon, let alone the other half.” Shiny slumped and stared, unable make ears or tails of the situation. “I'm sorry pup, are you confused?” Shiny nodded. “Well, her we are. My name is Sharna. Ever since I realized what I was, I've been fighting to survive and thrive. By the way you were trying to get those papers back and the way you honey-talked my servers to give you extra food, I can tell that you have magic, too. With this magic I have been able to find gems better than any diamond dog ever could. That is why I am the leader of the Western Pack now. That, and I fought the last Alpha. It didn't end well for him. Follow me.” Sharna's staff made a rhythmic clicking as she loped to one edge of the cave. As they approached, Shiny noticed that there was another room she hadn't noticed before. It was lit by the same type of braziers that lit the throne cave, and the cave walls gleamed with similar gems. The room was indistinguishable unless a dog was very close to it. “You three, too, come on.” The other three dogs followed at a distance as they all entered a room.

On a pedestal in the center of the room lay another collection of papers, similar to what Shiny had taken from her. She gasped. “Now, about two and a half months back,” Sharna continued, “we were digging toward what I thought was a great vein of gems. The pull of magic was insatiable, so I was naturally convinced we would find gems. After a month of digging, all we found was these strange papers. I tried all I know, but they refuse to cooperate. They look like they're written in pony words, but I can read normal pony words, and I've never seen words like these before.” Shiny's nose peered over the tome as she looked over the pedestal, sniffing the dirty papers. She felt drawn to them. As if the closer she was, the happier she got. She also was aware, though, that she wanted to be near both the loosely bound piles of paper. She snatched her papers from Sharna's paw and brought the halves close together so that she could be near both stacks at the same time. Wait, when did she start believing they were two halves-

Shiny's papers suddenly flew from her paws. Though no dog had touched them, the papers on the pedestal flew into the air. Both Shiny's papers and the stack that had been on the pedestal met in mid air. The air crackled and burst with energy, flinging the papers across the room and knocking the other dogs to the ground. Sharna recovered first and crept over to the papers on all fours. She came back, holding a bound, well kept, and completely in-tact volume.

“Well, pup. Looks like you and I aren't the only ones with magic.” She tossed the book at Shiny's paws. Although the book slid across the floor, no dirt seemed to stick to it. “Well, how do we make this pony witchcraft work?”

“I-I don't know.”

“How do you like that, Francis? The pup speaks.” Francis was still in the corner, trying to right his massive frame and straighten his helmet, which had been blown backwards. Sharna rapped his helmet again and gave a chuckle. “Over here, metal face. Well, what do you make of it? How does it work?”

Shiny stared at the book. She tried to open it, but the covers snapped shut every time. Even Francis couldn't pry the book open. After whimpering at it, reasoning at it, cursing at it, and staring at the book intently, Shiny asked the others if they had any suggestions. The other suggestions proved just as useless. Spot had surprisingly strong jaws, but he couldn't open the book either.

After a few hours, Shiny got angry again, picked up the book, and threw the book across the room. A wave of panic struck her, and she felt foolish. Why did she even want the book? Sharna said it was magic. Maybe that's what was drawing her. Maybe...

Shiny leaped to the other side of the room, picked up the book, and set it on the pedestal once more. She stood over the book and stared down at it.

“Did you figure something out?” Rover asked.

“Yeah, tell us!” Spot squeaked.

“Calm down, now,” Francis barked.

“All of you, quiet!” Sharna hissed.

“Don't worry guys, she'd let us know if she found something, right Shiny? Shiny?” Fido put a paw on Shiny's shoulder and then pulled it back. Shiny was still. She was rigid. Her stare was blank. In front of her the book let out a soft glow and opened to page one.

Deeper Still

I looked at my hooves and felt the dull warmth of the tea soak through. I felt that perhaps today would be a good day. I thought, maybe I wouldn't have to worry today.

“So, whaddaya think?”

“Spectacular, darling! It looks wonderful.”

“Yeah, it's awesome! I think we're ready.”

I cringed. The fact that my friends were so close meant that I needed to say something. No! I could just let it go for a day. After all, I could still tell them tomorrow. But then I'd be putting it off. Saying something was the right thing to do. I needed to say something now, while I had the chance, before we got caught up in what we were going to do today.

“Um, girls.” I spoke up. I could hear myself fine, but they kept talking.

“Oh, you're just saying that.”

“No, I mean it, this is gonna be great.” I must have been too quiet, so I tried again.

“I- I think something's wrong.”

“Are you sure? Maybe we should go about this differently.” Now, I was positive I was loud enough then. Why were they still talking? Were they ignoring me? No, they wouldn't do that. But, this was too important to not say anything at all. I felt a sudden rush. I jumped to all fours.

“No way! We need to stick together. We need to stop this before anypony gets hurt.”

“Don't you mean-”

“GIRLS!” They stopped, turned to me and stared. My chest was heaving. The sun hat I was wearing came off. It gently wafted to and fro toward the ground, beating a hasty retreat from my sudden burst of anger. Or maybe it was a sudden burst of energy. Either way, the summer sun reminded me that I'd have to be nicer to my hat.

“Fluttershy, darling. What is it?” I was relieved that they heard me... but then I realized how flustered I had gotten. Oh, Fluttershy, I told myself, you're so hot-headed!

“Um, I'm sorry,” I gently replied.

“Nonsense.”

“Yeah girl, what's got you going?”

I looked at my two friends. I'm glad I can talk to them about anything, I told myself, and felt relieved. “I... I don't feel right about this. About any of this. We've been changing, we all have. Ever since, well, you know.” I looked at the ground sorrowfully.

Rarity was on the left, and I saw a hint of sadness immediately replaced with a warm smile. With a hoof, she brushed back her purple mane from her brilliant white coat, and she looked at me. Rainbow Dash was on the right, beating her wings so that she gently hovered above the ground. She looked back and forth between Rarity and I, watching to see what was going to happen. As she spoke, I got lost in her blue eyes. I heard her speak, but I only saw her eyes.

“Fluttershy, dear. There are things that aren't going to change. We're still friends. We still have each other. After everything that's happened, we're going to get through this, and nopony is going to get hurt. We've made sure of that.”

“Yeah.” In a flash, Rainbow Dash zoomed over to me and gave me a hug. “Don't worry. After what Twilight did for us, nopony's gonna get hurt ever again.” I felt her puff out her chest. “I'll make sure of it!”

I buried my face in her blue coat and let out a sigh that I didn't know I was holding.

“You're right,” I knew my voice was muffled, but I didn't care, I just needed to be close to my friends, “I just wish we could talk about this. I wish we didn't have to do this now.” Rarity had trotted closer and put a hoof around me, too. I felt her lean in and she spoke directly into my ear.

“I know. After tomorrow, we'll take all the time we need. But right now we have to be strong. We have to do this for Equestria.” I felt her grip grow stronger and she lowered her voice to barely a whisper. Her body started to shiver a little bit. I felt like some small part of what she was feeling was leaking out. However, her voice remained calm and steady. “We have to do it for him.”

The book dropped to the floor with a thud. Shiny saw Rover, Francis, Sharna and all the others standing, just staring at her. Shiny looked left and right to try and see what was so interesting.

“What?” Shiny blinked.

“You're back?” Francis asked the question as if he was shocked to see Shiny just standing there. Had she fallen out of a hole in the cave? “You're not hurt?” The second question made Shiny start to feel nervous.

“No, I feel fine, what? What's going on? I haven't moved at all.”

“You're right.” Sharna stepped forward and pointed her staff at Shiny's nose. “For a few minutes you were just standing there. Fido tried to get you to move, but you just stood there, rigid. What happened, what did you see?”

“Nothing,” Shiny started to say, but then a memory glinted in her mind. She looked at all the dogs that were standing there. “I was a pony. A flying pony. I could feel the wings. I could feel her, I saw what she saw. I said what she said.”

“A pony? That doesn't make any- ow!” Rover started to speak, but Sharna smacked his paw to keep him quiet.

“I was called Fluttershy. I was talking with...” Shiny scratched her head. Remembering the details were hard, like she was trying to remember a dream. “We talked about something. Something big was about to happen, and I was scared, but I had friends there trying to comfort me... It was weird, I was a pony. I had wings.” Shiny flapped her paws for emphasis.

“Magic,” Sharna's eyes glinted in the firelight. “Pony magic. Who else was there?” Shiny thought hard.

“One of them was Rarity.” Fido howled and Spot pulled on his ears.

“The whiny one, boss! The whiny one!” he cried. Rover tried to quiet them quickly, but Sharna had already noticed.

“You know these ponies?”

“Well, I guess the rabbit's out of his hole,” he muttered. “That's the name of the pony that made a fool of our pack.” Rover looked dejected. “She had gem magic, like you. We tried to make her work for us, but she made terrible sounds.”

“Horrible!” Spot interjected.

“She wouldn't stop whining,” Fido agreed.

“Big Alphas you all are,” Sharna mocked, “That's why your pack sent you. They thought you were useless after one bitch cried you out of house and home.”

“It wasn't like that,” Rover whimpered, “She was worse than old whistler. At least he stops making such a racket.”

“Night and day. Day and night,” Fido added. Sharna smiled.

“Good. Then, you're going back to your pack. You're going to find these ponies, and you're going to find out why they were here.”

“Not fair, not fair,” Spot cried. Francis gave a loud bark and a challenging growl. Spot stopped talking.

“They're the reason why we missed the great vein the first time. They distracted us from the mountain's secret with this magic, and none of you are coming back until you find out why. Find out and I'll make sure you're pack leaders. Don't find out and don't come back to our pack at all.”

Rover's eyes sharpened. “Fine, but tell me one thing. Why? Why do you care so much?”

Sharna appraised the pup. At least he was a pup in her eyes. “This mountain has secrets. All the older leaders didn't care. I'm going to make us a great pack. No more caves. We're going to have a great city. This mountain is the key to that future, and I'm going to know all its secrets before I visit the pack's great den.” Both her good and bad eyes shone with conviction. “Magic. Might. Mammon. When any creature thinks of these words, they're going to think of this pack. They're going to think of my pack. Come back with what I want or don't come back at all. Now get going!”

Author's Note

-I apologize for the incremental updates. I realize now that one can use password protection to post unpublished/unfinished chapters. Password protecting these chapters will allow me to get help from others without publishing unfinished chapters.

-Chapter 2 Finished

3.1: Pen and Parchment

Where rabbits softly graze

The field came alive with the morning sun. Two honey bees started humming flower to flower. A mother bird flew to her nest and started feeding her hungry brood. The sun silently crept over a sleeping unicorn. A few minutes later and a rabbit hopped close to the sleeping form. It was strange for a pony to be in the field, ponies rarely ever came here, especially unicorn ponies. The rabbit gave the strange visitor a few sniffs, but then the form shifted. Giving a small cry, the rabbit narrowly escaped getting smashed by the weird pony. Scampering off, the rabbit decided it wanted nothing to do with the pony.

The unicorn slowly got to his four hooves. He blinked a few times but kept his eyes narrow in the morning sun. He saw that he was in a meadow, and that he was alone. He couldn't remember how he'd gotten there, but took in the beautiful scene for a few moments. He figured he needed to find other ponies. Wait, he thought. Why ponies? He heard the sound of running water nearby and trotted over too it. Looking into a small stream, he saw a bespectacled face staring back. He had a bushy, curly, mane, green fur, and a horn. Oh, right, he chuckled. I must have gotten hit on the head or something. Wherever the river was flowing, he thought, running water would always lead to civilization; at least it should if he followed it long enough. The river was flowing away from a mountain and toward a tree line in the far distance. Platonic, he thought, as he trotted off toward the woods. Simply beautiful.

After some time he made his way into the woods. It was darker inside the woods for the sun had barely started to make its way across the sky. Deeper in the woods he heard a sound other than the occasional rustle of leaves or the brook's constant babble. He started to follow the sound as it lead deeper into the forest. Suddenly, he came across a clearing. A pony with yellow fur was near the middle of the clearing, talking to an owl.

“Now Mr. Owl, you absolutely must let me take you home. I can only do so much for your wing right here. I promise that I have nice, dark, shed that you can stay in. I've even put fresh straw in it.”

“Hoo,” came the reply.

“Now don't be like that! I know you like your home here, but I simply must take better care of that wing. The unicorn approached and gave a soft cough, trying not to disturb either the pony or the owl.

“Eeep!” cried the pony, who beat her wings to back up swiftly, but she tripped back instead. The unicorn realized that she was a pegasus.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.” For the strangest reason, he thought she looked familiar. “Have we met?”

“No. I-Im... Fluttershy.” The poor pegasus avoided the unicorn's eyes. He noticed how uncomfortable she looked and how softly she had spoken her name. He couldn't blame her shyness, a unicorn walking out of the woods and trying to start a conversation would be odd.

“Oh, please don't be afraid. I'm lost, you see, and I'm just glad to see another face.”

“Oh? You're lost? I can help you...,” she paused as her expression sunk, “at least I could if didn't have to help Mr. Owl.”

“Hoo!”

“You do too need help! You hurt your wing and ignoring it won't make it any better!” The unicorn was shocked at how passionate Fluttershy suddenly became.

“Hey, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone.” He didn't know where the expression had come from, but he was instantly sorry that he said it. Fluttershy's expression turned from horror to anger.

“You are not going to hurt Mr. Owl, you understand?” She placed herself between the unicorn and the owl, gave her best war horse face and pawed the ground. Her breath came out in short huffs. It would have been fearsome if it weren't so adorable. The unicorn had to stop himself from laughing.

“No no no! I just mean we can do both. I'm sorry, that's a bad expression. What I meant to say was, we can get Mr. Owl to your home, and me to someplace safe.”

Fluttershy's eyes brightened as she realized that not only did the unicorn not want to hurt anypony, he actually had a good idea. “Why, you're right! Here.” She lifted the owl with her hooves. The owl tried to fly away but cringed as pain shot through his hurt wing. Fluttershy lowered the owl carefully onto the unicorn's back. The unicorn felt a wave of relief as Fluttershy seemed not to view him as a threat. Relief was replaced with pain when the owl flapped his wings and dug in his talons. “Oh my, are you okay? Does it hurt?”

“N-No,” the unicorn lied, “just glad to be heading in ...ow... the right direction!” The unicorn tried to let out a grin, but it wound up looking more like a grimace.

Fluttershy bat her eyelashes, “ Oh, really?”

“Y-yeah,” the unicorn said, but the owl changed his grip and the unicorn let out a nicker from the pain. Fluttershy giggled. The two ponies trotted through the forest. Anytime they had to go over uneven ground, or if the owl tried to get better footing, a small whinny could be heard from the unicorn.

There's no place like a home

“There. Now, plenty of rest and keep that sling on for at least one day. Actually, make that two...” Fluttershy had treated the owl's wing and was giving him strict instructions. The unicorn stood in the doorway of a cottage made from a hollowed out tree. The cottage was simple and the unicorn felt that was probably what made it so warm and inviting. “Now,” the unicorn hadn't noticed her come over, but she was behind him, looking down at his back. She gasped.

“Oh I'm fine.”

“You are definitely not fine mister!” The unicorn was forced to lay on a couch while Fluttershy rushed off and came back holding a small tin. She brushed her long, pink, mane out of her eyes as she opened the tin and started applying a salve into his back.

“Ah!” He winced as the cold salve touched the claw marks. “Aaaaahhhhh.” He relaxed as the salve started to cool and soothe the cuts. He felt a square of gauze get taped down.

Flying away, Fluttershy looked back and asked, “Um, could I get you some tea?” the unicorn perked up.

“That'd be lovely.”

Fluttershy carefully flew back in after a few minutes and placed a teapot with two cups between them. She poured them each a glass and the two sat opposite each other. The tea was too hot to drink and there was an uncomfortable pause.

“So,-”

“I meant to-,” they both started talking at the same time. They stopped and chuckled.

“You fir-”

“Go o-,” they did it again. “Go on,” Fluttershy insisted.

“The first thing I remember is waking up in the meadow. I couldn't remember who I was or what I was doing there, so I wandered until I found you in the forest.”

“You can't remember anything else? What about your cutie mark?” Fluttershy pointed at his flank, which bore a picture of his special talent. This picture was forever marked on his haunches. It was a picture of an unfurled scroll, and inkwell, and a quill. “You must be good at writing. Twilight would like you.” The unicorn arched his neck to see the picture. His stare went blank. A spark of recognition seemed to grow. His face brightened.

“Pen. Pen and Parchment. That's it, that's my name! And I can do magic!” Fluttershy put down her tea and clopped her fore hooves together excitedly.

“Wonderful! What else do you remember?”

“Let me see,” Pen and Parchment concentrated, tapping a hoof to his forehead. “That's it for now, but at least it's something.” Fluttershy nodded agreement.

“A unicorn who does magic and writes. Twilight would really love to meet you.” Pen and Parchment looked at his tea. It was wonderful. The owl, helping him, the tea. Fluttershy was amazing.

“Fluttershy, what you did for that owl was very admirable. You helped me to the cottage, made sure I had tea, and treated my wounds. You even helped me remember a little about myself. You're so kind. I don't know if I'd have the same trust and kindness you do. Thank you so much.” Fluttershy blushed.

“Um, I'm just happy to help. I hope you don't mind, but I... um, thanks.. It's something anypony would do, really,” Fluttershy murmured as she looked away.

“What was that?”

“Oh, I was just saying that it was really nice of you to say that, but I think you would've done the same.”

“Aw, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten-” The cottage door burst open and a pink-maned, pink-furred pony came bouncing in. Pen and Parchment tried to jump up, but felt a sharp pain in his back. That's right, he thought, the scratches.

“Hey Fluttershy. Bet you can't guess what just happened to me, can ya? Haha, of course not. You can't see the past. Well, unless its your past.” The bundle of pink started jumping around the room. It would jump into the air with all four hooves, land, and then jump again. Pen and Parchment thought it was making a circular pattern around the room. “Well, unless you've got some sort of populous past pony peering device...,” The pink madness (Pen and Parchment was sure she was crazy) stopped to carefully consider this possibility (yep, absolutely nuts), “and I don't think you have one of those. Anyway I found a new friend, isn't it great? Somepony completely new showed up inside our basement. At first I was like, hey where'd they come from? But then he said that he couldn't remember who he was or how he got there.” Pen and Parchment's ears perked at the last sentence. “But then I thought, who am I to look a gift friend in the mouth, get it?”

“Um...okay,” Fluttershy squeaked out.

“Oh, wait. You're right, that's what I said at first.” The pink pony stopped. “Saaayyy, maybe you do have a populous past pony peering device. You know what this means? Aaa paaarty!” The pony jumped up again. Only this time, as she went airborne, confetti, streamers, and party hats appeared from nowhere. Pen and Parchment thought he saw a stray balloon. “Oh and here, an invitation. I didn't know you were having company, so I only brought one.” Pen and Parchment wondered where the pink one stored the extra air that allowed her to keep talking. “Hey, I've never met you before.”

“Um, Pinkie, we just met. This is Pen and Parchment.” The pink one, apparently named Pinkie, gasped with shock. All at once she stopped moving, and a balloon made a raspberry as the air slowly leaked out of it.

“You mean, we get to have two, no wait, no yes, two times the fun? This'll be the greatest party ever!” Pinkie seemed to levitate and jitter with excitement. Pen and Parchment was worried that two new ponies was too much for her and she would explode. Pinkie grabbed the invitation back from Fluttershy. She ripped it in half, produced a neon green crayon, and scribbled something on each half. “Here ya go. I've got to go to Rarity's and get ready.” She squealed, placed each half in one of the other ponies' hooves and zoomed through the open door. “Oh and hey!” Fluttershy cried out as Pinkie's head peered back through the door. “Gummy's bringing special party hats! I'm so excited!” With that, the countenance of excitement was gone again.

Fluttershy sat down. As she did, her face started to contort. Pen and Parchment started to get alarmed. When she started to sob, he panicked.

“Oh my gosh, what's the matter?”

“N-n-n, n-n-othing.” Pen and Parchment wanted to believe her. However, her quivering and sobbing was irrefutable evidence to the contrary. He considered her for a moment.

“You've been through a lot today, huh?” She nodded and promptly went back to looking miserable. “I'd guess that you were trying to get that owl to come home for a long time.” Another nod. “Then, taking a stranger into your home, you had to help Mr. Owl, and the new stranger who can't remember anything. You probably also need to take care of the rest of your animals, too.” Pen and Parchment couldn't have helped but notice a number of animals around the cottage. Many of them seemed to have homes inside the cottage. After everything this morning, the need to take care of her responsibility to her other animals, and now a party she hadn't planned for, it was pretty clear why she was so upset. Pen and Parchment stood up. “Alright, what can I do?”

“B-but, I've got to-” He silenced her with a wave of his hoof and poured her another cup of tea. He passed her the tea with one hoof and put the other on her shoulder.

“I couldn't imagine you lifting a hoof after all you've done for me. Here, have some tea and show me what to do. I'd really like to go to the party because Pinkie said there was somepony else who couldn't remember who they were. I don't know where the party is and I couldn't ask you to take me there and do all your chores. That'd be too much.” Fluttershy sat there, looking unhappy and adorable, but had calmed down significantly. Pen and Parchment realized that he'd left his hoof on her shoulder and she started to blush. He pulled back his hoof and looked at his half-invitation. “It's what friends do for each other, right?” She nodded through tear-stained eyes. “So, where is 'Carousel Boutique,' anyway?”

3.2: Pen and Parchment cont'd

Back Owls and Stomach Butterflies

Pen and Parchment came to realize why Fluttershy had been so upset. Taking care of the animals was a full time job that Pen and Parchment wound up doing. He was happy to help the mare but was exhausted by the time he was finished. Early afternoon had arrived and he had asked Fluttershy if he could take a nap. She replied that they could both use a nap. Happily nesting birds warbled in chorus as the afternoon wore on.

As the sky's hue started to darken, Pen and Parchment was shaken awake. Shaken may be too strong of a word however. Fluttershy gingerly inched a hoof toward the sleeping Pen and Parchment, paused before touching him, then barely touched his back. This was enough to wake the stallion, however. The two left the cottage and started toward a lightly wooded path that ran toward a town called Ponyville.

As Fluttershy opened the gate to let them through, a flurry of commotion burst out. A strange hooting sound got Fluttershy's attention and she rushed back to the door of her cottage. As she opened the door, she saw Mr. Owl standing on the floor.

“Oh, what's the matter Mr. Owl?”

“Hoo, hoo hoot.”

“Go on.”

“Hoot hoot hoo. Hoo.”

“Oh my. I see. Hey, Pen?” Pen and Parchment didn't know what to think when Fluttershy first called him Pen, but he decided that he liked the nickname.

“Yes?” He called back.

“Mr. Owl doesn't want to be left alone, do you mind if he comes along with us?”

“Not at all. But if he rides on my back, I'll have to ask him to be more careful.”

“Well, Mr. Owl?”

“Hoot.”

“It's a deal!” Fluttershy beamed and picked up the owl. She flew over to Pen, but before she set him down on Pen's back, an aura of green light enveloped the owl. Fluttershy realized that Pen, being a unicorn, was using his magic to levitate Mr. Owl gently down. Despite the experience of flying, or rather levitating, without his wings, the owl offered no resistance as he was lowered onto Pen's back. Pen let out a sigh of relief as the owl came to rest without digging his talons in. Pen stopped to think a moment. He then arched his neck to look at the owl.

“Hm, I need to call you something. Archimedes sounds nice. What do you think?”

“Hoot.” Pen didn't speak owl, but assumed that was an affirmative and turned toward the path. Daylight was giving way to twilight as the three started off toward town.

They had been winding their way along the path when Pen noticed Fluttershy started to huff. They had been taking a brisk pace, but Pen wasn't out of breath.

“Are you okay Fluttershy?”

“Oh, I'm fine.”

“Okay...” Pen opened his muzzle to say more, but stopped. Fluttershy opened her muzzle to say something, but she closed hers as well. She shifted her eyes to a sidelong glance at the side of the road that did not include Pen. “You know, you can say something if you want to, I won't stop you.”

“I know Pinkie Pie is happy all the time. It's just sometimes I need a break. They're my friends, and I like them, but sometimes I just want to sip tea and enjoy the afternoon. I'm okay doing that but I don't think Pinkie would be but if I don't say something then I just feel rrgh!” As her frustration increased, her words came out in a flurry. Pen started to wonder how she was breathing. He tried to politely interrupt her.

“But, if you tell her, I'm sure she'd understand.”

“Then she'd think I didn't like her.” Fluttershy slowed her pace and looked sad.

“She's you're friend. You don't hate her, she knows that. You can be honest with her, and yourself.” Fluttershy stopped. Even though the two ponies were about the same height, Fluttershy had lowered her head. She looked up and gave Pen the smallest hint of a smile.
Pen couldn't help himself. Without thinking, he found himself blurting out, “Fluttershy, you are just so adorable.” Fluttershy stopped suddenly. She avoided Pen's eyes and her cheeks started to flush. She stood there statuesque for an uncomfortable moment. She suddenly let out a nearly inaudible squeak and galloped headlong down the trail. Pen blinked at the empty space that Fluttershy had occupied moments ago. He was shocked at how quickly the mare could gallop. The fading light made it impossible for him to see her. He sent a surge of magic into his horn that illuminated a large portion of the path, but he still couldn't see her. “Um, Fluttershy?” he called out, hoping she could hear him. “I don't know how to get to Ponyville.” Silence was his only answer. “I kind of need you.. to show me... the way?”

“Oh right, sorry-” Archimedes hooted and flapped his wings, Pen whinnied in surprise. “Up here. I guess it's my turn to apologize for scaring you.” Neither Pen nor Archimedes had thought to look up to see the pegasus silently making her way back through the air. She landed back on the ground. Pen steadied himself and smiled.

Patting her head he replied, “No, it's fine.” She smiled as the two continued walking down the lane.

They passed a signpost with writing on it. Pen hesitated for a moment, but couldn't make out what was written on it. Fluttershy didn't seem to try to read it as she walked by.

“Was that sign post for Ponyville?”

“Uh-huh. Oh, don't worry, I know right where we are.” A few sparse buildings turned into a town square as the main road lead them through the center of town. An orange glow from street lanterns and the steady clopping of hooves on the road were the only things disturbing the night air. A sudden shiver ran down Pen's back as he realized how quiet things were. They owl adjusted his footing nervously. Fluttershy seemed disturbed as well. Her soft voice broke through the silence almost reverently.

“I can't ever remember Ponyville being so quiet and empty.”

“It's not usually this... silent?” They passed the town hall when Pen heard another noise. He had initially mistaken it as the sound of their own hooves. When he had stopped to look at the town hall, however, the sound continued. Fluttershy stopped as well and gave him an inquisitive stare. “Do you hear that?”

“No. What is it?” The two were speaking in hushed tones.

“It, sounds like something's moving.” The faint sound seemed to be coming from more than one direction. Pen guessed that was because of an echo. “I can't tell how many there are. Nor could I say which direction they're coming from.” He motioned to Fluttershy and the two tip-hoofed under the eaves of town hall. The sound grew louder and turned into a number of distinct sounds. Fluttershy put a hoof to her muzzle as she tried to cover the sound of her heavier breathing. She pointed a hoof down the street they had just come from and from the blackness strange forms appeared.

They were talking, but neither Fluttershy nor Pen could tell what they were saying. The strange babel was punctuated with unusual stops and guttural noises that didn't make sense to the two ponies. From Pen's vantage, he could see that there were two other forms. Their features were hidden, however, by dark cloaks.

As the forms passed by they slowed their pace some more. Pen suppressed a yelp when a, “Hoo, hoot hoo,” emanated from his back. The two forms stopped and looked directly at them. A set of golden, glowing eyes peered out from underneath one of the hoods. The other hood was completely black.

“STOP!” he cried and lunged out of the shadows. The soft green glow from his horn shone like a floodlight as he poured all the magic energy he could into illuminating the surrounding area. “Who are you,” he demanded, “and what do you want?”

Author's Note

Chapter 3 finished.

4.1: A Horse of a Different Color

Up With the Sun…Almost

The morning sun had already started its course across the sky. The loud hum of a cicada let the surrounding countryside know that the day's warmth was starting to settle in. Under one particular tree, a mare slept peacefully. Her sleep was so deep that even the sound of passing hooves didn't wake her. Neither did the sound of the wagon being drawn along behind them. A few minutes later, however, a massive thud jolted the mare awake.

She opened her eyes with a start but squinted them just as quickly in the bright morning light. The first thing she noticed was the peace that surrounded her. Though she didn't recognize where she was, she felt completely at ease. She stayed on the ground a few moments longer to let the warmth of the country sink in. That was when she smelled them.

She tried to open her eyes more slowly and saw a tree bearing a delicious smelling fruit that she couldn't recognize. Either way, the tree's golden fruit enticed her. Two things became painfully clear. Firstly, a rumble from her stomach let her know that she needed to eat. Secondly, she didn't know what the fruit was at all; being unable to identify the tree or its fruit disappointed her deeply for some reason. The tree was tall, maybe three times her height. She decided to climb it in order to reach the tantalizing fruit. She put her fore-hooves on the bark and stepped closer with her hind-hooves. Barely able to reach the lowest branch, she knew she would need to get higher. She lowered her hindquarters and pushed off the ground.

She easily reached the lowest branch and wrapped a foreleg around it. She then kicked off the tree to bring the rest of her body onto the branch. The bough swayed, but held her weight. Overjoyed, she picked one of the golden fruits and brought it close. Realizing that it might be poisonous, she bit a small piece off and smelled it. Then she gave the piece a tentative chew. Her stomach rumbled. Good enough, she thought, and she stood on the tree, quickly cramming the crop.

“Wow.” The entire fruit was in her mouth when she stopped chewing to see what had just made that sound. A large pony stood and stared at her, wide eyed. I must have startled him speechless, she thought. He just stared at her. She jumped down, which made the pony back up in astonishment. She laughed inwardly to see such a large stallion backing up from her significantly smaller frame.

“Mmm mph, mm!” Her words didn't form themselves past the bits of fruit she hadn't swallowed yet. She bit down some more and stopped suddenly. Parts of this fruit were poison. They were concentrated poison, at that. The poor stallion watched in confused amazement as her mouth began to internally sort out the meat of the fruit from its poison. After a few moments, she started spitting out small black pods and examining them. She swallowed the rest of the fruit.

She took stock of the newcomer. “Sorry about that. I needed to separate that fruit from its... well, they seem to be seeds. Would you like to take a look?” Her accent was different from his. Her words seemed to flow together. He stared back, unresponsive. “Look, you can see, this fruit has poison seeds.” This was starting to become uncomfortable. She smiled, realizing that this pony had probably never seen a mare in a tree before. “I do need your help. You see, I woke up in this row of trees and I'm not sure where I am. I know this is a sight you don't often see.” The stallion nodded slowly.

“Eeyup.” While the mare was pretty sure that was an affirmative, she had never heard the expression.

“Well, do you think you could help me? I can't remember how I got here.” That seemed to register with the stallion. His expression changed. He started to trot off. Not wanting to be wasteful, the mare tucked the strange seeds into a band on her right fore-hoof and followed after.

Climbing the tree earlier had given her a slightly better vantage. She could at least see that the tree she had been on was one in a much longer row of trees. Unsure of what to think about the row, she could at least tell that the trees had been specially taken care of and nurtured. She saw their strong trunks and felt a large, intermingled system of roots.

Her head had been so lost in the trees that she didn't realize they had approached another pony. “Now, Big Mac, where in the hay have you been? Not sleeping, I hope.”

“Nope.”

“Good, because today's already shaping up to be a real doo... oozy.” The new pony stopped as she looked at the strange visitor. “Well, now don't that beat all?”

“Eeyup.”

“Well, howdy, I'm Applejack and this here's my brother Big Mac.” This new pony wore a strange hat and spoke in a funny accent, but seemed exceedingly friendly. While she had introduced herself, she rigorously shook the mare's hoof. As she continued to speak, she continued to shake the newcomer's hoof. “Why- why you're a zebra! We haven't seen another one of you since Zecora settled in! Well it sure is a pleasure.” The mare looked at her hoof which had become a black and white blur.

“Yes I am. It's good to meet you.”

“Say, you must be starved.”

“Actually, I- “

“Great, come on with me to the farmhouse.”

“Oh, so this is a farm?”

“Only the best apple farm Ponyville has ever seen.”

“So those fruits are called, apples?” Applejack seemed taken aback.

“Haven't you ever heard of apples before?” The mare shook her head. “Well, you're in luck! Come on, you're about to get a first class education in apples!”

As the three made their way, the zebra learned that she was in fact in an orchard, which is what ponies call an apple farm. The farm was a family farm and it seemed Applejack was prouder of it than anything else in the whole world. Not all of the trees were bearing the same apple fruit, either. The zebra tried to pay attention, but there were so many types, and she was so hungry, that the mare couldn't possibly remember all the names.

“...and here's just one of the wonderful things we do with our apples,” Applejack pointed out a collection of machines that seemed to be horse-powered. The zebra marveled at the whole operation. She had never seen a farm so large; it stretched on for acres. Applejack hadn't stopped relaying every minute detail of the farm as they passed, and this station was no exception. Her brother, meanwhile, strode alongside them, proudly. He hadn't spoken a word since the formal introduction.

“This here's where we make our cider. Here, have a glass.” Before she could respond, a frothy mug was thrust into the zebra's hoof.

Instead of being concerned or distrustful, the zebra curiously stared at the glass. She wondered what “cider” was and if it had any connection to the liquid in her mug. She shrugged and took a sip... which turned into a gulp, which turned into the entire mug. “Well, shoot,” Applejack grinned, “you'll fit in just fine.”

“This is delicious. It also tastes like the same fruit those trees are growing.” Applejack nodded.

“Sure is. Apples are this farm's specialty and we do all sorts of things with them. Say, you catch on pretty quick. Well, here we are.” Applejack pointed a hoof at a large house that lay just past what was apparently the cider making station. “Well, don't be shy, come on in.” Applejack hurried ahead and waved a hoof at the entrance. The zebra trotted hesitantly but started to canter when she caught the scent of freshly baking bread. Her stomach let out another growl. When she stopped to clutch at her stomach, she didn't notice a red blur whiz by her. After the hunger pang passed, she continued to the house

When she reached the threshold, she was greeted by a number of smiling faces. Applejack greeted, or re-greeted, her instantly. “Most of my kin are out at their own homesteads right now, but this here's Granny Smith, you met Big Mac, earlier, I'm Applejack, and this here's Applebloom.” The zebra blinked in surprise at the stallion, when did he pass her?

“When did you- weren't you just-”

“Eeyup,” was the stallion's only reply. He was making his way out of a family room and what seemed to be searching for the source of the smell. A much older mare made her way from a rocking chair toward the zebra.

“Well, howdy,” Granny Smith's joints squeaked as she moved, “I haven't seen another zebra since Zecora, and before her, well... that was while my kin was making our way out where we're settled today. But that's a story for another time. How are you, dearie? My name's Granny Smith, and this here's Applejack, and Big Mac's gone to take care of his stomach, and- where's Applebloom?”

A new voice exclaimed, “Right here, Granny!”

“What's that? Where? Applebloom, you get down this instant!” A shiver ran up the zebra's back. She realized that Granny Smith was talking past her. “Our guest is not a jungle gym!” This new voice was youthful and the accent seemed related to the rest of the clan. The zebra would have chuckled, but was distracted by the sensation of four little hooves making their way up and down her back.

“Hey you're a zebra, huh? That's amazing, just like Zecora, but your stripes are different. Also, she doesn't have those bands on her arm. What's your name, anyway? You sure are smaller than her, though, and your hair's different. Actually, I -wah!” The zebra felt the weight on her back shift. In an instant she felt that the small filly (the weight had been light, and the voice was female) had lost her balance. Instead of letting the filly fall, she adjusted her center of gravity and bucked. The filly flew straight into the air. The zebra jumped backwards on her haunches to get a good look and to get herself ready to jump again. She spied the yellow and red bundle spinning through the air and pounced, catching what must have been Applebloom by the scruff of her neck. She lowered her safely to the floor. The zebra stepped back to get a better look at the filly. She noticed that the red on Applebloom was twofold. The filly’s red hair formed a first layer, but a red bow rested atop her hair, forming a second. The bow matched her hair almost perfectly, and both worked a sharp contrast to the filly’s golden coat.

Applejack stared, eyes wide and jaw slack. Granny Smith seemed more concerned with discipline. “Now what did I tell you, Applebloom? You're just spoiling for an injury.” Applebloom looked down and pawed at the ground, ashamed.

“I'm sorry, Granny. It's just so neat to have a new pony in town. 'Specially a zebra.”

“Don't apologize to me, apologize to her! And be thankful she's faster than a jackrabbit on a date, or you could've been hurt!”

Applebloom kept her head down, but raised her eyes miserably. “I'm sorry.” The zebra winced at the foal's admission. She was sure she must have done something wrong to make the foal so miserable.

“That's okay, but your elder's right. That was not smart. I'm glad I was able to catch you.” Applebloom perked up when the zebra spoke.

“Yeah, you were amazing! Could you teach me to do that? If I could do that, I'd get my cutie mark in an instant!”

“Well, I could show you what I know, but it would take years of practice to perfect.”

“That'd be great! I could be like, zoom! And then you could jump and catch me while I'm flying in mid air!” Applebloom was prattling excitedly and moving so fast that the zebra could only see her when she stopped to catch her breath. The filly appeared under the zebra, then from behind a couch, and then from around the zebra's back. Granny Smith was horrified.

“''Fraid not, sugarcube,” Applejack interrupted Applebloom's excited fantasy, “Somepony's got school.”

“Aaawww, shucks.” Applebloom stopped and looked unhappy again. A wave of relief showed on Granny Smith's face.

“Come on y'all, breakfast is ready!” Everypony in the room made their way to the kitchen where an organized heap of delicious smelling foods flaunted their sights and smells at anypony that might dare to try and ignore them.

Over Breakfast

“Now, I've been thinking,” Applejack started, “How is it that you found yourself out this way? You’re only the second zebra I’ve ever met.”

The zebra barely heard the last sentence. Her attention was focused on the baked apple bread she was eating. The idea of growing apples, cutting them up, partially drying them out, and then baking them into a bread made no sense to the zebra whatsoever. Why wouldn’t they just eat the apples and bread separately? The fact that it didn’t make sense somehow made the bread more delicious. Her musings were interrupted by the word zebra.

“Mmph, mm?” she said, forgetting that her mouth was full. Granny Smith gave a chuckle.

“Well shoot, Big Mac, I think we found another pony who likes Granny’s applebread more than you-,” Applejack started to tease but was cut off.

“Nope,” Big Mac bellowed. The zebra was taken aback by the stallion’s sudden outburst. She stopped chewing as the room fell silent. After an uncomfortable pause and almost all at once, the whole Apple family started to laugh. The zebra relaxed, finally swallowing her current mouthful.

“Did I miss something?”

“Don’t you worry none. Big Mac’s just playing with you.” The red stallion grabbed another slice of the bread and gave a grin. “As I was saying, we’ve got chores that we’ll be doing all day, so I think you should meet Zecora.” Applejack stopped as she remembered something. “Say, I know we never gave you the chance, but what're you doing in these parts, anyhow? I don’t want to sound rude, but we haven’t seen a zebra other than Zecora around these parts since… well, ever!”

“To be honest with you, I don’t know. The first thing I remember is waking up this morning.”

"Not anything?” Applebloom interrupted. “Haven’t ya got a name? Or a family? Everypony has a family.”

“Hush, child, let her speak,” Granny replied, concern in her voice.

“To answer your question, I can’t remember.”

“Aw, that’s sad.” Applebloom looked down and pawed at her plate.

“Well that settles it. Applebloom, come help me with the saddle bags. I can’t sit by while a po- er, a zebra's in need under our roof. Big Mac and I are gonna be doing chores all day and Applebloom's gotta go to school,” Applejack ignored an “Aw shucks” that came from her sister, “But don’t you worry. I’ll introduce you to Zecora. She's a friend of ours. If anypony can help you figure out what’s going on, it’s her. Besides, I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she sees another zebra.”

“Eeyup.” Big Mac was wearing the same grin he had on earlier.

“C’mon, Applebloom.”

“O-kay!”

Applejack left the room with her sister. The two started getting things ready. They gathered up some water canteens and Applebloom’s school supplies and lunch. They then distributed them between two sets of saddlebags. They went outside and the filly started helping her sister put on the large of the saddlebags. She looked up at Applejack. The sun was behind her sister, silhouetting Applejack and making it hard for Applebloom to see her sister’s orange coat, golden mane, and cowgirl hat. “I don't get it sis, why're we helpin' her?”

Author's Note

Quick note: Delicious fruit that has poisonous seeds.

5.1: Keep Calm and Soldier On

A Great Escape

He didn't need to be awake to know his world was upside down. Maybe it was years of training. Perhaps it was simply instinct. One thing was sure, he was upside down. He also felt like he was in the wobbly space of consciousness that is not sleeping but not awake. While he didn't have control over his body, he had the strange sensation of awareness. His eyes were shut. Good, he thought. They won't notice I'm awake yet. Part of him could feel a floor. The rest of his body was resting on... not floor. I can't feel what I'm on, I must be wearing my armor. The fools! They haven't stripped me of my armor!

He smiled and then cursed himself silently for smiling. Maybe they haven't noticed me smiling. I should stop smiling. Unless they have noticed me smiling, then they'll think I'm awake if I stop. His face twitched with indecision. Fool! Now they know you're awake! Too late! With a twist of his body and a mighty roar, he tumbled to his feet. In the same action he reached for his weapon, unsheathed it, and let fly a mighty slash. There was a small commotion as the blow found its mark. He sliced something. It must be a number of somethings, he thought, from the noise they just made. He opened his eyes.

One eye adjusted to sunlight before it had even finished opening and he found himself at the center of a small, circular, room. He was looking out a small window toward the sun. What he could see of the furnishings, however, baffled any attempt to understand where he was and how he got there. He swung around in an attempt to see more of the room. As he did, his weapon continued a steady gouge that it had started with his initial cut, and he cut a swath through about a quarter of the wall's circumference before realizing what he was doing. Oops, oh well. This room has been cleared of danger. He sheathed his weapon with another deft motion, feeling confident in his accomplishments.

The rest of the room's contents were no less baffling: an elegant bed, a poster whose corner he had cut off, and various other odds and ends that didn't seem to fit each other. The circular window letting in the light was in shambles. He lifted up the corner of the poster he had cut. Rocks. Rocks had been affixed to the paper. He let the corner sag, ignoring the obviously useless paper.

He noticed a trap door without a handle at the center of the room. Perhaps I am in danger after all. The exit only seems to open from the outside. Strange accommodations for a cell. A gilded cage is a cage, nonetheless. He moved silently to the trap door, but heard a soft motion and then a loud crash. He stood stock still, silent. Either his captors weren't awake, or they had left him alone. Surely any self-respecting prison would guard their prisoners in shifts. Clearly, these forces are not self-respecting. He started to attempt to pry open the door when he was stopped by a sudden thought. Perhaps they are simply that confident in their little “cage.” I'll show them!

Carefully, he attempted to pry up one edge of the rectangle at a time, pulling from the center of each edge so as to have the best chance of success. He was completely unprepared when, by the third corner, the door started to give. Jumping back, he looked around for any signs of assailants, but there were none. He returned to his work, and, to his shock, the door lifted up, exposing a set of stairs that lead downward to another room.

He looked at the door suspiciously. What if they want me to try and escape? That would give them justification for... well, for doing anything with me. What are you? A lion or a mouse? Gathering his courage, he marched up to the door and down the steps. A limb rested on his weapon, prepared to give any combatant the fresh taste of cold steel.

If upstairs had been baffling, downstairs was an enigma. Gay colors decorated the walls. He jumped back, drew his weapon, and almost thrust violently at his own figure. He quickly recognized his own form, and was amazed to be staring at two or three copies of himself in a number of mirrors. The dimly lit interior only added to the terrifying effect.

A sanitarium. They must be expecting to drive me insane. And it's working! No! Get a hold of yourself! You've faced countless other tricks and interrogations! Be strong. He had almost calmed himself down when there was a strange drumming. He flew into an anxious furor searching for the source. He had circled one third of the room when the drumming came again, spurring his search. Then he saw it. A door, and the drumming seemed to be emanating from it. An individual was trying to come in. The tension was too much. He flew over to the door and in one fell swoop unlatched it, backed up, and leveled his trusty steel on whatever dared challenge him on the other side of its threshold.

His steel gleamed in the morning sun and found itself nose to nose with a tiny pony. He thought there was a name for tiny pony offspring, but he couldn't remember it. He glared at the pony, who looked up the blade of the weapon, to its shaft, and then to its owner. The pony screamed. Screamed would have been a strong word, though. The sound the pony was making wasn't screaming, it was more of a high pitched, squeaky cry. The pony ran away down a grass path that was hedged with bushes.

He sheathed his weapon and started to rub his temples. Things were becoming clear, sort of. Now, instead of armed guards that he could easily overtake, he would have to deal with a screaming, and probably crying, child. It made him shiver.

The screaming, however, died away and then stopped. Turning his head and opening his eyes, he saw the tiny pony slow as the cry died away. It stopped, looked back, and then pranced in place. As it pranced, it turned to face him. He didn't move for what seemed like a long time, but was really only a few moments. The pony continued to prance and look about. After a few more uncomfortable moments of intense, internal decision-making, the pony nervously pranced back to the door. When it got close, it looked up at him curiously.

“Hey,” it squeaked. “You're not my sister.”

“No.”

“You're not even a pony.”

“Yes.”

“Well gee, you're talkative,” the pony rolled its eyes.

“I don't have time to deal with sarcastic pony brood, I need to find out where I am.” He went to close the door.

“Hey!” it squeaked again and he cringed. “I'm not a brood! I'm a filly! And I have a name, you know. Besides, this is my sister's house, you can't just lock me out!” He shut the door. He couldn't tell what was more enjoyable, how long the stunned filly took to react, or the familiar, if not angrier, screaming that eventually came. Oh, that's right, fillies and colts, he thought. He rubbed one of this temples, thought better of it, and opened the door again.

“Your sister?”

“Yeah, and she's gonna be mad when she finds out what you did!”

“Oh, and who's she?”

“Oooohh! You make me so mad! Are all griffons this mean?”

“Only when dealing with stuck up little...,” perhaps he should try a different approach. “Look, I'm sorry. I woke up a few minutes ago and I didn't know where I was. I was ready for kidnappers, mercenaries, or some mad doctor. I didn't mean to frighten you, I just didn't know what to expect.” The filly softened.

“Oh. You don't know how you got here?” He shook his head. “Well then, in the spirit of generosity, I'll forgive you.” He bit back the desire to object to the blame being attached to him. “Anyway, I'm Sweetie Belle, and this is my sister's house. Her name's Rarity. If you're lost, you must be hungry.” He was starved, but he wouldn't admit it. “Well, whatever. Follow me!” She did a sort of joyous, skipping motion into the house. It seemed as if it were some sort of two-legged stutter-step. He followed after her. “I'll go make us some breakfast.”

Field Rations

The door to the house opened. Four graceful, recently hooficured hooves trotted inside. A collection of shopping bags were levitated to a corner in the display floor. The owner of the fancy hooves caressed the air with her elegant voice, “Sweetie Belle, is that you?”

“In here!”

“Oh darling, I'm sorry I wasn't home by the time you got in. I absolutely had to reach the market first thing today, otherwise they would have run out of the silk I needed, and you know all the work this morning meant I just had to get my hooves treated. Lotus Blossom and Aloe always do such wonderful work. I don't think I'd trust my hooves to anypony...” the speaker trailed off, sniffing the air. “You're not cooking, are you?”

“Uh-huh! And my new friend gave me a lot of tips, so it came out great this time.”

“New friend? Is there a new student in your class?”

“Nope, I met him when I knocked on the door. He let me in cause you weren't home.”

“Wa, waaaa?” A white and purple blur shot through the display floor and into the kitchen.

“Hey Rarity, you're just in time, the juice is finished cooking! Aaah-” Sweetie Belle cried out as an aura of light blue appeared around her and she started to levitate away from her skillet. Rarity had looked in the kitchen and acted right away.

“Sweetie Belle, you get away!”

The filly galloped as she was floating, trying to get traction in mid air. The griffon sat at the dinner table. He casually crunched charcoal mounds that had once had been biscuits. Eh, I've had worse, he admitted to himself. The pony levitating the filly was a unicorn. Her brilliant, white coat gleamed even without direct sunlight. Her perfectly styled purple mane had been ever so slightly disheveled in her rush to get her sister to safety. An aura of light blue surrounded her horn like it did her sister. “Who are you, what do you want?” she demanded. The griffon shrugged.

“I have no idea,” he replied.

“Is it the jewels? Perhaps you've come to steal my fall fashion line. Did Photo Finish hire you?”

“I couldn't tell you.”

“So your employer wishes to remain anonymous, do they? Well. They won't get any information out of me!”

“Okay.”

“Rarity,” a weightless Sweetie Belle chimed in, “meet my new friend, and put me down! I think I'm getting sick.”

“Sweetie Belle, if you hadn't noticed, there's a griffon in our kitchen and he looks dangerous.” The griffon picked up a glass containing a black sludge. Huh, didn't think you could burn juice, he mused. That he put back down.

“That's what I've been trying to tell you. He's my friend, I found him. He can't remember his name, so I'm calling him Griffy.”

“I found you, and I told you my name's not Griffy.”

“I warn you, you'd better not correct my sister. How did you get in here, anyway?”

“Don't know.”

“You expect me to believe you.”

“Don't care.”

“Well,” Rarity huffed, “of all the rude, low class ruffians!” She continued doing her best to sound distressed and offended. The griffon rubbed at his brow and temple, They must be siblings. Perhaps the ability to be shrill is a defense tactic their family passes down to its spawn. He cut in.

“I say I don't know because I don't know. I woke up in here having no idea who I was or what was going on. What you choose to believe is your decision.” The griffon smiled as the new pony stared at him in bewildered silence.

“And you interrupted me t-”

“Yes. Corn muffin?” He held out a muffin tin that contained muffin-sized slag mounds. Rarity looked at her sister, who did her best to corroborate the story by smiling and nodding furiously, all the while floating up-side down and slowly rotating. Rarity looked at the rest of the kitchen. On the counter near the stove there were three plates. Two of the plates had two eggs on them. Each plate had a sprig of parsley perfectly positioned; somepony had even taken the time to arrange the garnish on the plate with no eggs. Rarity lowered her sister to solid ground. Sweetie Belle stumbled to the left as she got used to her hooves again.

“Sweetie Belle, did you do that?” The filly proudly performed her strange stutter-step over to the plates.

“Yep. Griffy helped me. Is there a cutie mark for parsley arranging? He said it was super easy and showed me how.”

“How did you show her how to do that?” Rarity inquired. The griffon shrugged.

“I already told you, he showed me,” Sweetie Belle pointed a hoof at the griffon. She then bounded over, puffed out her chest, doing her best to look five feet tall and menacing. “The garrison commander always eats first, always eats best, and always loves it when everything is arranged right.” The filly lowered her voice as best she could in a ridiculous attempt at imitation. “Hey, Rarity, what's a garrison commander?”

“I think I am.”

“What?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, confused.

“You lost your memory?” The griffon nodded. “You can't remember anything?” He shook his head. The tin of “corn muffins” were wrapped in a light blue and started levitating toward the sink.

“No need for these poor things. Alright, let's get started on a proper breakfast.”

The rest of the morning was spent cleaning up from the first round of “cooking” and preparing a meal. Rarity was shocked to find how good the griffon was at cleaning. Anything that needed to be moved, sorted, or thrown out, had been taken care of within seconds of her mention.

By the time the food would be ready, it would be brunch, if not lunch, so the menu wasn't strictly breakfast. Each place setting had a strawberry, spinach, and walnut salad with a light vinegar dressing. Rarity had found extra eggs, so all three were able to have eggs, as well. New biscuits were baked (not torched), as well.

When all was said and done, the griffon admired the look of the meal, but changed things around to his taste. He halved and buttered the biscuits. He then put salt and pepper on the eggs and laid them inside the biscuits. Sweetie Belle was fascinated.

“Hey, where'd you learn that?”

“I don't know. I just felt like it.”

“Why'd you feel like it?” The griffon shrugged in response.

“Well,” Rarity's voice wove its thread into the conversation. “I don't know about long term, but I'd be happy to let you stay if you could help me around the shop. There are just so many things to do.”

“But Rarity, I thought I was going to help you.”

“You are Sweetie Belle, but think of how much faster things would go if we had another set of hooves? Well, talons, anyway. Just be careful with the fabric. On second thought, don't touch or worry about the fabric. If nothing else, staying with us will help you get acquainted with Ponyville. Who knows? You may even get part of your memory back.”

“Ponyville?”

“Yes, that's our little village. It's not large, but it has a certain, je ne sais quoi, about it. I think you'll find it very charming.”

“Thank you Rarity. That's very generous.” Rarity smiled and beamed. She looked over her shoulder, however, when there was a knock at the door.

“Who could that be? Could you two start to clean up while I go see who it is?”

“Sure,” Sweetie Belle squeaked. The griffon nodded.

5.2: Keep Calm and Soldier On cont'd

Guests- Uninvited and Otherwise

The door burst open. Rarity stood in the center of a circular maelstrom of pink. The maelstrom spoke. “Rarity! You'll never guess what I just found!” Rarity stood fast, doing her best to look completely unphased and unamused.

“A new friend?” she replied to the blur. Amazingly, the blur stopped, turning into a painfully pink pony. The pink pony's eyes widened.

“You must have one too!”

“One what, darling?”

“A populous past pony peering device, silly! Fluttershy already has one, and you two are the first ponies I've met that both guessed what I found!”

“Sorry dear, not following. What can I do for you?”

“Well, I was going to hold a party for my first new friend, but when Fluttershy told me she found a friend, I knew this would have to be an extra special, super big party, because now there are two new friends we get to celebrate. My room's great for parties, but not for an extra super-duper big party like this one! Rarity,” the pony dove at Rarity's hooves, hugged them, and looked up with the eyes of a puppy whose biscuit had just been stolen, “Rarity, can we please have our new pony party here?” Rarity realized that the quivering Pink mass was asking to hold a party in Carousel Boutique.

“I'm afraid not.” The pink one sat on her haunches, produced a handkerchief, and started crying. The crying was so pitiful that Sweetie Belle and the Griffon came to the arch that separated the kitchen from the main hall to see what was wrong. Rarity noticed them peering in. Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and grabbed two buckets from a corner.

“Raridy! Why'b you haffe do go and mage her gry?” Sweetie Belle's muffled voice wormed its way past the bucket handles in her mouth. She put one bucket on either side of the crying pony, who was, coincidentally, crying buckets.

“Oh don't worry, I simply refused because it would be inhospitable not to invite my new guest.” As soon as Rarity said this, the water hoses of tears stopped and the pink one looked at Rarity, blissfully ignorant.

“Huh?”

“Why,” Rarity held an explanatory hoof to her breast, “I simply can't have any pony being left out of a soiree held at my manor. Especially when that pony isn't a pony at all! Pinkie Pie, I'd like you to meet... um, what did you say your name was again?”

“Griffy!” cried Sweetie Belle.

“That's not it!” the Griffon growled. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie, the name of the bundled pink energy, began to fluctuate. “Wha- what's wrong?” The griffon took a few steps back, unsure of what to make of Pinkie's current state. Rarity took a few steps toward Pinkie Pie, gesturing at her with a hoof.

“Oh don't worry she's probably going to have an excitement atta-” The sounds of firecrackers and bottle rockets drowned out anything else Rarity was saying. Pinkie Pie jumped and floated in mid air, giving a stream of whoops and hollers that seemed to remind the Griffon of a battle cry. There was also confetti.

“Three new friends IN THE SAME DAY! This hasn't happened since... well this has never happened before! There's so much to do, time is candy, I gotta go!” Pinkie Pie lowered back to earth, zipping out of the door as soon as her hooves were earth-bound again. Her head reappeared back in the doorway as quickly as it had left. Her eyes were wide. “Rar-”

“Yes, of course we can have the party here.” Rarity replied cordially. A tactical genius, able to predict her friend's question, the Griffon observed silently. Pinkie was once again gone; this time she didn't return.

Rarity spun on her hooves to face her sister and the Griffon. “Now then, Sweetie Belle, Griffy, yes I know that's not your name, but it will have to do for now- we have work to do.”

“Not me,” Sweetie Belle chimed, “I have to go to school, bye!” The filly galloped over to a counter near the door, picked up a bundle of books held together with some leather strapping, and dashed out the door. Rarity went to the door and called after her.

“Okay, but no dilly dallying. I need you home as soon as school is over.” Through the doorway the Griffon could hear a distant reply.

“Oh! Can my friends come too?” The Griffon rubbed a temple as the filly's voice cracked into a squeak again.

“Yes, that will be fine.”

“Yay!”

“Well then,” Rarity turned again, marching to the center of the room, “Looks like you get to help me with the shop today,” she started levitating a number of bolts of cloth, stacking them neatly. “As well as my new fashion line. Oh the things I can do with a Griffon model, simply inspiring! Not to mention, you must help me prepare for the party tonight. As... enthusiastic about tonight as Pinkie Pie is, tonight's social function will be held in my shop, and that means it must certainly have a true spirit of haut monde.” A horde of enemy combatants he could deal with, but he felt awkward and out of place with these ponies and their fancy things that served no purpose. The graceful decorating wasn't helping, either. Rarity stooped her head to levitate some clothes and looked back over her shoulder at the Griffon. “Yes, this will do nicely.” The Griffon didn't like the way she was looking at him. Surely she couldn't be serious. Surely she wouldn't be so cruel as to put that on him. The Griffon stared blankly. His left eye began to twitch.

Author's Note

End Ch. 5

6: A Bird in the Boutique is Worth...

A Sack of Potatoes

Darkness. Though the world seemed to consist of other things, right now all that could be seen was nothing. This would be unsettling to some, but the one experiencing it found it quite relaxing. No responsibilities, no worries, no demands. For right now, for at least one moment, the world was at peace. An uncomfortable peace, but peace nonetheless. Except, there was a strange cramp beginning to disturb the peace. All sorts of strange, cumbersome weights were making it hard to move. After some shifting, some film that had settled became unsettled, turning into a cloud and making it hard to breathe. A coughing fit broke out, setting off a chain reaction of coughing and clouding. Then came the light. The light rudely forced its way in, even though it hadn't been invited.

“Well, darn.” A pegasus stallion lay blinking, sprawled out between a number of heavy sacks. It was he who had “darned” the light's intrusion. What had seemed like tragedy for him seemed to bring excitement to the owner of another voice, however.

“Hey. You're not flour. And why didn't I know you were going to be there? You surprised me. That's new! Do you know what this means? It means I'm gonna have to... huh!” The voice's owner ended her sentence with a short pause and a gasp, as if she had suddenly realized something.

“I'm sorry, who are you?”

“Well that's a silly question. Especially because you're the one in my basement. You must be a spy for the flour! Ooohhh, that's sneaky. Hiding in the flour, just waiting for me to not know about it. Then you'd find the perfect moment to leap out. Too bad for you that I know about it now!” The owner of this new voice stopped to catch her breath. The pegasus guessed that she hadn't actually stopped to take a breath since starting to talk. It was the sound of her heavy breathing that lead him to come to that conclusion. “I guess it's not technically my basement, but that's not important right now. Say, doesn't your disguise need to be more... flour-y? Unless you're using reverse reverse psychology, then it's the perfect disguise!”

“That's not what I'm doing.”

“So, you're saying it isn't, is it? Is that it?”

“No... wait, yes?”

“It is or it isn't, which is it?”

“I uh... have no idea. And I'm not spying for the flour, I think.”

“So you could be? Oooohhhh, I get it. You're their captive and they've brainwashed you into being their secret spy. Just don't say the magic spy words, that will probably activate their master plan, turning you into a zombie for their whim!” The pegasus' eyes finally adjusted to the light. The face of the bright pink pony stared at him. Her gaze seemed to drill down through him and tempt him to divulge his deepest secrets. Let's see, his deepest secrets were, what again?

“...Okay. I won't say the secret spy words? I-I'm lost, though, I have no idea where I am or how I got here.”

“You know what you need?” The pink mare leaned against a table that hadn't been there a moment ago. She produced a file and started to file a hoof; she occasionally extended the hoof to look at it, and then retract it to start filing again. “You need a friend. Aaanndd it just so happens that you are in the presence of Pinkie Pie, Ponyville's premier party pony. Oh yeah, and friend maker extraordinaire.” She blew some invisible filings off her hoof.

“Where?”

“Why right here, of course. Pinkie Pie, I'm Pinkie Pie, it's me!” Pinkie Pie waved her hooves furiously. She suddenly stopped when she realized what she was doing and how ridiculous it looked. She giggled. “Good one! Have we met before? I feel like you and I are friends already.”

“No.” Pinkie Pie seemed to get more excited. The pegasus didn't think that was possible, but what happened next assured him that it was.

“I, uh, have to go do something completely unrelated to meeting you! Make sure to help Mr. and Mrs. Cake while I'm gone!” The pegasus heard another voice outside his field of vision.

“What was that Pinkie?”

“Um, I need to go do something really important. Is it alright if my new friend helps you while I'm gone?”

“Oh, sure. Have fun!”

“Great to meet you new friend!” Pinkie Pie ran over to the pegasus, shook his hoof.

“Uh huh.”

“You're silly! Bye Mrs. Cake!” Pinkie Pie giggled. She then disappeared, leaving the pegasus upside down.

He groaned, shifted, and righted himself. The face of a blue mare replaced the pink countenance that had been there moments earlier.

“Well, Pinkie left and didn't give you any instructions, did she?” The pegasus shook his head. “Well, don't you worry. Mr. Cake and I will show you how to run the shop. Tell me, have you ever run a register before?” The pegasus shrugged. “Oh my. Well, we'll start from the beginning. Here's an apron.” The pegasus had an apron draped over his head. Mrs. Cake tied the back. He was then shown to the cash register where a yellow stallion with orange hair was frantically filling bakery orders. The pegasus looked around. He was in a bakery. That explained the bags of flour. How did he get there, though? “Alright. Mr. Cake over there will fill the orders, I'll take the orders and tell you how much they are, and you just have to punch in the amount here and take their money. That's the fun part.”

Without a word the pegasus made his way to the register. After some figuring out, directions from Mr. Cake, and some receipts that Mrs. Cake secretly corrected, the pegasus started to get the hang of operating the register.

A lot of ponies of all shapes, kinds, colors and sizes came in that day. The pegasus felt like his left hoof was going to have a permanent bend in it from operating the register. By the time afternoon rolled around and the shop closed, the pegasus was exhausted. He felt like wherever he was, he'd seen the entire town pass in and out of the shop. The smells at the end of the day made it almost worth it, however. He asked for a roll with a pecan on top.

“Oh sure, it's the least we can do for all the hard work you put in today. Oh my, where are my manners? I'm sure we already did this, but I'm Mrs. Cake, and that there's Mr. Cake. He's got to go deal with the kids, but you come to the kitchen with me and we'll get you something to eat. What's your name, by the way?”

“Joey Fleetwood.”

“Well, Joey, I sure hope we see more of you. The shop's getting so popular. I'm not complaining, mind you, but I don't know where we'd be without Pinkie Pie.” Mrs. Cake continued explaining all about the shop and its customers while Joey enjoyed a wonderful pecan roll and dinner with the Cakes.

Down and Out...the Door, the Wall, and the Window

Joey had flopped down on the bed Mrs. Cake had showed him to. Sleep. He really wanted to go to sleep. The cellar had been uncomfortable and the day had been long. Now he needed to... “Joey? Oh Joey!” … not sleep, apparently. He got up, rubbing an eye with his hoof. He slowly clip-clopped his way downstairs.

“So, what's going on, Mrs. Cake?”

“Hey there sport,” Mr. Cake answered, smiling. “Something came for you.”

“For me?”

“Uh-huh,” Mrs. Cake cut in, “and we think you're going to love it!” She held out a hoof and shared a glance with Mr. Cake. Joey wondered what was going on. Looking down, he saw yellow envelope with a pink lining. The unopened letter looked like a cake. “Well, go on.” Mrs. Cake was smiling now, too. Joey took the letter and tried to open it. As he did, the envelope itself unfolded once, then twice, then a third time. Joey's sleep addled mind boggled, trying to comprehend what it was he was looking at. Mrs. Cake snickered quietly. The envelope was a card. No, the envelope was an invitation. Joey tried to read it out loud, maybe that would help him understand what was going on.

“To my new friend,

You are begrudgingly invited to Carousel Boutique.

There will not be a “party” when you get there.

Whatever happens when you do get there is in no way related to your first visit to Ponyville, or, for that matter, to becoming my awesome new friend.

This so-called not party is BYOC (Bring Your Own Cake) only.

Dancing will not be encouraged.

It will NOT be fun there, so don't even think about smiling! There you go, smiling again. I know you are! Stop it!” Joey had to laugh. At the bottom of the invitation there was a frowny-pony drawn in crayon.

“Pinkie asked to make sure you left right away, so we baked this for you. Make sure Pinkie gets to see it before it gets cut, she always loves to see the cakes... right before she devours them whole.” Mr. Cake held out a box. Joey was surprised.

“But you just met me, this is too much.”

“Oh nonsense. You're like family now, don't cha know?”

“Are you sure Mrs. Cake?”

“Oh yeah, now you get on out there, have a great time, and say hi to Pinkie for us when you see her.”

“That's right! And if you're ever looking for work, you did a great job today, we'd love to have you.”

“I-It's just. Thanks, I mean.”

“Don't mention it.” Mr. Cake lifted the box up and put it a carrier that strapped on Joey's back like saddlebags. Joey walked out the door as the cakes waved goodbye. “So, the kids asleep?” Mrs. Cake smiled. The door jingled as it opened again.

“I, uh, which way is Carousel Boutique?”

“That's right, you might want directions,” Mr. Cake chuckled. After some directions, diagrams, and a number of hoof gestures, Joey set out into the night.

He started questioning himself when all of the houses and streets started to look the same. Was it a left or a right at Wheel Barrow Way? It was definitely a right. Or was it a left? Joey stopped suddenly when he heard some voices. They seemed to be coming from his right. Perhaps his instincts had been “right” after all.

“Huh, that was a bad one, brain.” Joey set off to his right.

Just a few blocks away, guests were arriving at Carousel Boutique. Because there were so many new friends, Pinkie had invited most of Ponyville, and a lot of Ponyville had shown up. When Rarity heard another knock at the door, she did her best to put on a calm, collected face and trotted over toward the door, greeting her guests as she passed. “Why hello Cloud Kicker, glad you could join us. Oh my Golden Harvest, is that a new dress?” When she opened the door she was ready to scream. She stopped herself, however, when she recognized Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, who are all these ponies?” Zecora and Zoe pulled back their hoods. “And Zebras?” Ah diamond dog stepped closer to the door, shielding her eyes from the inside lights. “And, diamond dogs? Fluttershy, what are you thinking? Are you trying to get foalnapped?”

“It seems we have picked up a stray. She journeyed here from a long way,” Zecora offered.

“Can I come in? I promise I'll be good. It's cold out here.” Rarity blinked, unsure of what to do.

“Pinkie Pie asked us to come, I think?” Fluttershy added. Rarity got a look of determination on her face.

“Why you fillies and gentlecolts must be our guests of honor! Please, please, do come in.” Stepping aside, Fluttershy let Zecora, Zoe, Shiny and Pen and Parchment enter the party first. “My, my, Pinkie Pie was not kidding when she said new friends were popping up like Daisy's daises. I don't know how many more guests we can take.”

“I'm sorry,” Fluttershy said, stooping.

“Not at all. Besides, what would a friendship party be without the new friends? These are just so many friends.”

“I'm sorry,” Fluttershy whispered.

“Don't be silly. I'm sure we'll manage. There's just so many ponies... I mean, er, ponies and zebras... ponies, zebras, and diamond dogs.” Rarity rolled her eyes. “Well, the only thing we're missing is a Griffon, oh, that's right.” Pen heard Rarity talking at Fluttershy and trotted over. Fluttershy looked miserable, she seemed to be contemplating that coming to the party was a grievous mistake.

“We can leave, if that's all right with you.”

Rarity's haggard expression melted, she her face lighting up. “Not at all, dear. Now, you march over to that punch bowl this instant and go enjoy yourself, I insist!”

“Okay.” Pen and Parchment got Rarity's attention.

“Nice to meet you. I'm Pen and Parchment.”

“How wonderful! You must be one of the new friends Pinkie was talking about. Charmed.”

“As am I. You look lovely. I couldn't help but overhear you earlier, though. It sounded like you were a bit overwhelmed. Is there anything I can do to help?” Rarity brightened.

“Why I wouldn't know where to begin! I'm afraid I may have worn out my Griffon helper. He is pretty gruff though, and I wouldn't want him hurting my China.”

“Do you need help setting a party table, perhaps?”

“You read my mind, Pen. Follow me.” The two entered a dining room that was adjacent to the main hall. Rarity floated out a place setting. “Now, you will want to start on the outside and work your way in. First we have the napkin, then the salad fork, the dinner fork-”

“Followed by plate, knife, and soup spoon.” Rarity was taken aback.

“Why, another pony versed in Catillion! Where have you been all my life? I though Sweetie Belle might like to learn how to lay a table, but I'm afraid she's much better at taking them apart. Literally.” The two shared a chuckle.

“I'm sorry, who was Sweetie Belle?”

“Where are my manners? She's my sister, you can see her right over there.” Rarity pointed a hoof into the main hall. Pen and Parchment saw three young ponies laughing and playing together.

“Which one is she?”

“The unicorn with the brilliant white coat. Runs in our family, you see.”

“I can. Your coat is quite beautiful.” Rarity fixed her mane with a hoof.

“Now, now Pen, flattery will get you everywhere. Courteous and read in the art of manners. Where have they hidden you in Ponyville all this time?”

“Not at all. Actually I think it's fun to use my magic to set tables. I'm not sure why, but I enjoy it.”

“Griffy! Why did you take off the suit I gave you? It made you look stately! Come over here, I'd like you to meet a new friend of mine. This is Pen and Parchment.” The Griffon had wandered into the dining hall.

“Uh huh. Good to meet you.”

“Good to meet you, too,” Pen and Parchment chimed. “I'm sorry if I forget your name, though.”

“Please do.”

“I'm sorry?”

“Forget my name.”

“Well, between Zoe, Zecora, Rarity, Fluttershy. I'm sure I will. This is turning out to be a great time, though.”

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and a third filly ran into the room. Sweetie Belle anxiously tugged on her sister.

“Rarity? Rarity? Rarity!”

“Yes, what is it Sweetie Belle?” Rarity replied, keeping her composure.

“I wanna show Scootaloo and Applebloom what I made for you. Can you go get it now?”

“As in, right now, right now? I don't know, we have a lot going on with the party, and Pinkie isn't even back yet.” Sweetie Belle's head sunk toward the floor.

“Okay. It's just, I really wanted to show them the awesome thing I made for my sister.” Sweetie Belle pawed at the carpet. Rarity's face contorted for a moment. Their inherent cuteness seems to be an offensive weapon, as well. Interesting, thought the Griffon. He gained a deeper level of respect for these ponies that seemed to have no natural defenses. Rarity let out a sigh.

“Alright Sweetie Belle, let's go.” Sweetie Belle went from morose to rapturous in an instant.

“Awesome!” cried Scootaloo.

“Hooray!” Applebloom shouted.

“I apologize, I won't be a moment,” Rarity nodded at Pen.

“No problem,” Pen replied.

Rarity made her way back to the main hall, three fillies in tow. On her way to the stairs, she realized that everypony seemed to have disappeared. The fillies, the phonograph, and herself were the only sounds being made.

“Hello? Did everypony go home?” Rarity thought she heard snickering. The four made their way up the stairs to Rarity's bedroom. The staircase was in the middle of the hall, so Rarity turned around to get a vantage of the whole room. She stopped, astonished.

“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle tugged on her sister.

“Hush! Something's wrong.” Rarity heard a sudden noise and shout behind her. She looked over her shoulder and her eyes went wide.

Joey approached Carousel Boutique alone. The voices he heard had disappeared. Between the direction of the voices and what was left of his muddled directions, however, he stood before a building that actually almost matched the crayon building on his invitation... sort of. The fact that the lights were on, though, and muffled music seemed to be coming from inside.

“Must be the place,” Joey said to no pony in particular.

“Psst! Over here!”

“Who was that. Where are you?” There was a giggle.

“I said 'over here,' silly. Can't you tell?”

“Pinkie Pie. Where are you? Why are you whispering? Wait, why am I whispering?” Joey's voice had gone to a whisper almost subconsciously. “Hey,” started at a normal volume level, but a hoof suddenly muzzled him. Pinkie Pie came around Joey to be in his field of vision.

“Sssshhhh! I said.” Joey pulled the hoof away.

“You did not,” he whispered.

“Did too! That's why everypony's quiet in there.” Joey arched his neck to look past Pinkie Pie. Aside from the music, there didn't seem to be talking anymore.

“How was I supposed to know?”

“You weren't, duh. Come on quick, all the ponies and zebras and diamond dogs and griffons (there's only one of the last two, but it sounds better that way) are all being quiet and hiding like I told them to. They're getting ready to surprise us. But we're gonna surprise the suprisers. I guess that makes us the... suprisees? That's not it. The suprisists?”

“Pinkie!”

“Oh right! Up here!” Pinkie Pie suddenly started to float. Joey rolled his eyes at the gigantic balloons that were carrying lofting Pinkie Pie higher through the air. She giggled as she galloped in mid air. The balloons slowly drifted toward the roof of Carousel Boutique. Sighing, Joey slowly beat his wings to follow Pinkie.

When he had reached the roof, he looked around and sighed again. There was no sign of Pinkie.

“Hey there!” Joey gave a yelp as the voice came from behind him. “You caught up! Imagine that, a pegasus having to catch up with a flying earth pony. Isn't that hilarious?”

“Pinkie Pie, I-”

“You're right, it's just over here. Normally we couldn't do this, but it looks like Rarity had a fight with her wall and it lost.”

“Well, at least me eyes will get a good workout,” Joey mused as he rolled his eyes again. Pinkie Pie and Joey entered the top level of Carousel Boutique through a literal hole in the wall. The room was dark, the only sounds were Pinkie Pie and Pen, and the sound of muffled music. The wind outside started to howl. “Listen Pinkie, I'm not so sure about this. I don't know what would I say?” Pinkie Pie seemed distracted with something on the floor.

“And go!”

“Wait, what?” Joey's world slowed down. His hooves had been quietly clopping on wood a moment ago, but now his hooves touched nothing. He cried out and tried to fly, but he was off balance and he hit his head on a beam as he flapped his wings. The world turned upside down as he started to spin. He thought he saw a large blur of white and smaller blurs of both yellow and subdued orange. There was the distinct sound of tiny ponies screaming.

Rarity's eyes went wide. With one deft motion, she brushed the three fillies out of the way (but not off the stairs) with a hind leg and danced her way to the other side of the stairs. A pegasus went tumbling in between them all.

“Rarity catch me.”

“Wha?” Rarity looked up and gasped. Pinkie Pie was flying through the air. The pink pony sized ball landed squarely on Rarity, who had instinctively turned around and held out her hooves to catch, what again? The two of them followed Joey down the stairs. Joey started to recover at the bottom of the stairs when Pinkie Pie and Rarity landed squarely on him, too.

Pinkie Pie bent the laws of anatomy and disentangled herself. Jumping up, she shouted, “SURPRISE EVERYPONY!” a battery of circus colored cannon fired confetti, balloons, and plush party favors all over the main hall. The Griffon dove underneath the dinner table, taking cover from the ambush. His head popped out from the table cloth a moment later, surveying the damage while one eye started to twitch. Joey groaned, Rarity fumed from the ground. Somewhere, hooves were clopping the ground in applause.

“Look mommy, a zebra!” One of the colts came out from hiding and pointed a hoof. Zoe was in the middle of the room, a smile on her face. She continued clopping her approval.

“That was wonderful! Where did the cannons come from?”

“They're nothing special, just my standard '21 Party Salute,'” Pinkie Pie replied with a grin. “Alright everypony, LET'S PARTY!” The phonograph came to a scratching halt and changed records. A repetitive tune came on with a heavy beat. Those who had been hiding or seeking cover came out, somewhat slowly, and started to enjoy themselves.

“Pinkie Pie?”

“Yes, Rarity?”

“Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? The fillies could have been hurt!”

“Don't worry about that, I'd never let them get hurt. See, I put them on top of us and they rode us all the way down, safe and sound!” The three fillies were dancing in a circle right next to the dazed Joey.

“That was amazing!” cried one. “Is there a cutie mark for pony-riding?” asked another. “Check my flank, check my flank.” the third called anxiously.

“Rrgghh,” growled Rarity. She huffed up the stairs, stopped at the top, and stomped back down.

“Are you okay Rarity?” Pinkie Pie gave her friend an honest look as her flustered friend stomped past toward the dining hall.

“Oh Mr. Griffon?” Rarity sing-songed. The Griffon tucked his head back underneath the table cloth. Spying the table cloth swaying suspiciously, Rarity's horn started to glow. The table cloth swept out from underneath the place settings upon it. Wrapped in Rarity's magic, it folded itself and put itself away in a cupboard. Her horn continued to glow. There was a scratching sound underneath the table. The Griffon's posterior showed bright blue as it appeared from underneath the table. The rest of the Griffon followed as he scratched at the floor, trying to get a grip. Rarity floated him off the ground and turned him to be face to face with her. “Do you happen to know anything about the massive hole in my bedroom?”

“No? I mean, yes?”

“I see, and just when were you planning on telling me?” The floating griffon shrugged. “Do you know how cold it is up there?” The Griffon shrugged again. Pen and Parchment came to the rescue.

“You know Rarity, the Griffon and I could go fix it for you. If not, we could at least seal up the wall.” Rarity spun her head around. The Griffon flailed as her magic towed him along.

“Why, you would do that for me, dear? Oh would, you do that for me?” She fluttered her eyelashes.

“Sure!”

“That's so generous of you!” Rarity squealed and embraced Pen in a hug. The Griffon flailed again as Rarity's magic cut off and he fell to the floor. “You are a gem, Pen!” Across the room, unseen to anyone in the dining room, Fluttershy and a small, purple dragon shared some angry looks and hushed conversation. The rest of the party continued as the Griffon and Pen and Parchment made their way upstairs.

Pen and Parchment put some pins and patted the trap door while the Griffon found the supply closet Rarity had told them about.

“So, uh Mr. Griffon? Did you see where the candle was? Maybe a light? Boy, it sure is cold up here”

“No.” The Griffon found the closet and dumped a bunch of wood and nails next to the hole in the wall and broken window. The Griffon stopped and kept his head erect. The wind had picked up significantly. “Feels like a storm.” Pen and Parchment trotted over.

“I don't know about that, but it sure is cold. Listen to that wind.” The hole started to howl in varying pitches as the wind slowed down and sped up. “Don't worry, though. I'm sure we'll have this covered in a jiffy.” The Griffon stood still, not responding. “I mean, if both of us are working together, it shouldn't take long.” The Griffon's head swiveled so that one eye was looking directly out the window. “Wh-what's wrong?” Pen and Parchment shivered and it wasn't just because of the cold. The wind, dark room, and weird griffon weren't helping matters. The Griffon's iris expanded slightly. Some of his feathers began to stand on their end.

“We're being watched.”

“Say again?” The Griffon looked at Pen and Parchment with his other eye and nodded slightly. “Really?” The Griffon rolled his eye this time.

“Don't worry though. He's trying to get a better look at us. Just a little bit closer and he won't be able to escape.” Pen and Parchment looked through the hole in the wall. All he could see was a small grove of trees near the outside of town.

“W-What should we do?”

“I don't know about you... but... I've got him!” With a flurry the Griffon was suddenly gone, leaving a panicked Pen and Parchment, who, above all else, didn't want to be alone anymore. He fumbled with the trap door for an anxious half minute until, in a fright, he broke it again like Pinkie Pie had. He bustled downstairs, trying not to look nervous. Ignoring a purple pony offering him a glass of punch, he marched over to Rarity.

“Rarity, the Griffon said he saw someone watching us.”

“Lovely to see you Pen, what was that?”

“Th-the Griffon, he said someone was watching us and he's gone!”

“Gone? Where did he go?”

“I don't know, but we have to help him, quick!”

“Calm down dear, now I'm sure there's nothing to be scared of. My, you're shaking.”

“B-But, I don't know if he's okay!”

“Well, then, let's go see.” Rarity sauntered to the door. Pen and Parchment trotted nervously in place, murmuring. He didn't want to go outside, but he couldn't leave Rarity to face whatever was out there by herself.

“Rarity, wait up!” He galloped to her.

“Please, please, everypony, continue the party, Pen and I have to look at something. We'll be back in a moment. Yes, Berry Punch, save those two glasses for us.” As Rarity opened the latch, the door was taken by the wind and pushed in on it's hinges quite forcefully. Rarity and Pen made their way outside. Pen struggled to pull the door shut with his magic alone, but he managed.

“See here, dear? Nothing there.” Rarity gestured gingerly. “Oooh!” Rarity shivered.

“Um, I think it was... on the other side?” The two made their way to the side of Carousel Boutique that faced away from town.

“See, darling? Nothing here, either.” Rarity lifted a hoof and held her head high in confidence.

“I wouldn't call that nothing.” Pen pointed a hoof and Rarity opened an eye.

“Oh my.” Two forms were circling each other in the night. The moon was partially hidden by the clouds, so neither form could be seen clearly. Other than each other, Rarity and Pen couldn't hear anything but the howling wind. Rarity galloped toward the two forms.

“No Rarity! Wait!” Pen called out. He whimpered and followed after her as fast as she could. He was scared he might lose her, but her coat took on a beautiful blue sheen in the moonlight. She stopped suddenly, a short distance from the two forms.

“Who has the gall to interrupt my peaceful, elegant gala?” Her horn started to glow a brilliant, bright blue. Pen pulled up next to Rarity, gasping for air. Rarity gasped.

“What is it?” Pen asked, nervously. The two forms had stopped circling. Pen saw the detail of the two forms very well in the light of Rarity's horn. The two looked monochromatic, however, as Rarity provided the main source of light. It as if, instead of gray-scale, Pen saw the forms in blue-scale. What he saw was two griffons. Not just any griffons, but he saw two of The Griffon. As they turned to stare at Rarity and Pen, all four of their irises shrank, in unison, to the size of a pin.

Author's Note

-The title of the chapter goes along with a well known saying. Can you finish it?
-End Ch. 6

7: When Clouds Can't Make Up Their Mind

What to Howl At When You Can't See the Moon

“Something is wrong. They have been gone for too long.” Zecora had made her way to Zoe.

“Rarity and Pen and Parchment? I mean, they've only been gone for a little while, but we could check on them if you want.”

“We should see where they went. Something tells me the air tonight is very volatile. There is a strange magic at work; don't be nonchalant.” Zoe considered this for a moment and put down the glass she was holding. She felt a tug at a hoof. Looking down, she saw a small colt. He looked up at her, expectantly. Zoe blinked, looking at the colt.

“Um, are you coming back Mrs. Zebra?”

“Don't worry, little one. We'll be back as soon as we're done,” Zeocra assured.

“Mommy, I wanted to ask the Zebras something.” The colt ran over to a mare excitedly. The mare looked down wamrly.

“It looks like they're heading out, dear. We can ask them it when they come back.” The rest of the conversation between the two faded away as Zoe and Zecora left Carousel Boutique.

The night sky was cloudless. Zecora could easily see in the soft moonlight, even though it wasn't a full moon. Zecora smelled the air. Zoe felt something off, something painful. The two looked at each other and started out in the same direction without a word.

“Something's over there.” Zoe nodded her head to the left of their current course. Zecora looked, noticing it, too. They shifted their direction.

“Can you tell if it's stallion or mare?”

“I can't see yet.” The two stopped short of a form lying on the ground. It's head swiveled and two eyes pierced the darkness. Zoe staggered back, catching her muzzle. “That's a bad smell!” Zecora pushed past Zoe and stooped over the form to get a better look. As soon as she did, there was a whimper and Zecora backed up quickly, walking backwards. “What's wrong?”

“This is a timber wolf who's bone must be reset. Why he would even be here, I cannot tell. Have you journeyed in these lands long?” Zoe shook her head. “Timberwolves are a magical animal native to these woods. The fact that this juvenile one is in town is not good.” There was another whimper as the creature seemed to know that they were talking about it.

“What can we do, it looks like it's in pain.” Zoe reached out a hoof. Zecora slapped it away.

“Be careful, otherwise your intentions will be in vain.” Zecora sighed. “See the how hind leg is crippled there? Take heed what I tell you and beware. We will be able to help this lost one. Hopefully he will return home when we are done.” Zoe nodded.

Suddenly, Zecora leaped on the form. She wrapped her forelegs around the neck of the struggling wolf. She hugged herself close to the back of the creature's neck. It struggled for a long while, but calmed down when it sensed the struggle was useless.

“Now come find the legs on the back. One of them is plagued by a crippling crack.” Zoe approached the timberwolf. Looking closely in the moonlight, she rubbed her muzzle with a hoof. She was surprised to see that the creature was animated and made completely out of wood. When Zecora told her that one of the legs was cracked, she hadn't expected to find the creature made completely out of wood; nor did she expect to see a literal crack that had immobilized one of the legs.

“Zecora, this thing's made out of wood!”

“You see that now, very good.” Zoe nodded, then remembered that Zecora wasn't facing her.

“Zecora, the leg's cracked!” Zecora's attempts to find any response were stymied. She let the painfully obvious comment go.

“Do exactly what I tell you and do not fear. When that is complete, we will be in the clear.” Zoe nodded again, oblivious. “Bring your hoof down upon the top of the leg with all your might. Do that, and the leg will right.” Zoe looked at her teacher. That didn't sound right at all. She thought Zecora was joking at first, but her teacher's silence let her know that this was no joke. Seeing no reason not to do otherwise, Zoe whispered an apology and brought one hoof down on the leg. There was a loud yelp and the force of the blow shocked Zecora. Zecora leaped backwards off of the timberwolf. She pulled Zoe back as she did. Zoe's hoof hadn't only shattered the leg, but had made a deep dent in the wooden body below. Zecora noted the strength required to do that kind of damage.

“You are strong my student. I waited to see if you would doubt me, you didn't.” Zoe, on the other hand, was speechless. The shards of the wolf's leg began to glow. Piece by piece, they started to reconnect themselves. After a few moments, the timberwolf got up, howled at the moon, and ran toward the edge of town with amazing speed. “Come, let us go back to the party. There has been enough excitement for one night to see.”

Zoe nodded, "Rarity and Pen are probably back inside by now." The two galloped back toward Carousel Boutique. As they left, however, neither had noticed the small hoof print that still showed on the flank of the timberwolf.

A Bird in the Boutique Is Worth Two on the Field... of Honor

Creatures of prey understand what it is like to hunt. The ability to think like prey, the instinct required to trail prey, and the speed required to prevent prey from escape are what is needed to hunt. Skill with the materials available is what is needed to kill prey. Killing the prey means eating. Eating means survival. Letting prey escape or simply failing to catch it means going hungry. Going hungry means death.

“That's clever. Where did they find you?” The two griffons circled, looking for any weakness, any advantage.

“What do you mean?”

“Whoever's hunting me must have thought a look alike would draw me in and make me let down my guard.”

“Hah! Only the one involved in such a cheap trick would think of it. You're the fake.”

“Um, if I may, what's going on here?” Rarity interrupted.

“Only a fake would accuse me of being a fake.”

“All I know is that a fake would never have the skill or prowess of the real thing. Prepare to be put in your place!”

“You're right. That's why I'm going to wind up on top.” The griffons continued to circle. Their eyes narrowed.

“Excuse me? I asked you a question. I demand that both of you explain what's going on this instant!” Both cringed. One griffon rubbed his temple. The other rubbed his forehead.

“Is that pony always like that?”

“You have no idea. The sister is even worse.”

“You leave Sweetie Belle out of this! Hey, are you listening to me?” A griffon looked at Rarity and sneered. The other griffon flew over in an instant and slashed him. Momentary shock showed on his face as a line of red and a small trickle of blood made its way down his face, staining his chest feathers.

“Alright.” He flew back a few feet and reached for his weapon. As he landed, his weapon and armor came off in one motion. He lifted off his helmet and threw it to the side. The other griffon did the same. As he reached for his helmet, however, the other griffon flew in close and slashed at his chest. A small red stain started to grow. The helmet came off in an instant and they were on each other.

As they tumbled, only a flurry of feathers and claws could be seen. Taking wing, the melee danced into the air until one of them kicked the other in the stomach. The other spat out a rush of air with the force of the blow, but clenched his talons into a fist and implanted that fist into the other griffon's face. The first lost his wings and fell to the earth. The other, gasping for air, had a slower descent to the earth, but doubled over, coughing.

“So, now you're both ignoring me, is that it? Well fine, beat the feathers off each other. See if I care.” Rarity lay on the ground, crossed her hooves, and started to pout. The griffons seemed to heed her advice.

The griffon that fell to the earth was first on his feet. He tried to fly, but couldn't get his balance. Shaking his head, he ran at the griffon sputtering at the ground. His target glanced up at the last moment, saw what was about to happen, and dove into the feet of his charging attacker, sending him head over tail. Getting up, he sucked in a large breath of air, getting his wind back, but was bucked from the ground by the other's paws. The griffon stayed on his feet and backed up, but his eyes were wide as he fought for air.

Pen looked anxious and confused. “Rarity, I don't understand, is one of them a changeling?”

“I can't say Pen, but let's see if we can find out. Now look here!” The griffons ignored her. Her horn started to glow. “Rrgh! I swear, whichever one of you takes another step is getting used for STUFFING MY FALL PILLOWS!” The two griffons stopped. The one had gone to a knee, but had regained his wind for a second time. The other held a talon to his head and stood there, bleeding.

“Fall pillows?"

“Why of course, Pen. Just because pillows are comfortable doesn't mean they can't be season appropriate. Now, which one of you want's to become pillow stuffing?” Both griffons pointed a talon at the other. Rarity growled a stifled scream.

“Rarity, we can ask them both questions only your griffon would know. Then we can find the changeling.”

“How very acute, Pen. Yes, well then, what to ask... hm?” Rarity glanced at Pen, her horn still aglow. Pen thought for a moment.

“Is Sweetie Belle older or younger?” Pen asked the griffon holding his head.

“Younger,” he replied.

“What color is Sweetie Belle's coat?” Pen asked the griffon on one knee.

“White.”

“Okay, how good is she at flying?”

“Well she doesn't fly very well.”

“A ha, she's not a pegasus.”

“No, but she still flies if her sister levitates her.”

“Well, that's true,” Pen considered. Rarity looked at the other griffon.

“My sister, how well does she cook?” The griffon turned his head and looked at Rarity with one eye. He smelled a trap.

“How honest do you want me to be?”

“If you're not, you'll be sporting orange and yellow by morning,” Rarity chimed merrily. Pen and Parchment shuddered, Rarity was starting to scare him. The griffon looked at Rarity, Pen, and the other griffon.

“Honestly? Fine. She's terrible.”

“So what does that mean Rarity?”

“Th-that's correct,” Rarity breathed, impressed.

“But that means we're right back to where we started.”

“Don't you worry Pen,” Rarity grinned, Pen shivered, “I've made up my mind what I should do.” Her horn glowed brighter. She pointed it near the griffon on one knee, then toward the one holding his head, repeated that process, and then centered her horn between them. “Why there you are, Mr. Tom! Do be a dear and help me out, would you?” The griffons looked at each other, confused... and suddenly their world went black.

The Migh tie st Warrior

Back at the Boutique, the colt lit up and ran toward the two zebras entering the room. “Hey! Mom says I can ask you my question now.”

A mare approached and nodded. She then turned to her colt. “But only if they say it's okay.” She turned back to the zebra. “He's never seen a zebra before,” she explained, “and he seems to really like you both.” Zecora and Zoe looked at each other and smiled. Zoe looked back at the colt.

“Sure, what would you like to know?” The colt looked up happily.

“Well, my name's Shadow Front and I like you.”

“I'm Zoe, pleased to you. Was that what you wanted to ask, my name?”

“Nope! I wanted to know if you were gonna get eaten up by the clouds.”

“I assure you young one, there were no clouds where we came from,” Zecora added.

“There sure were! I saw 'em. There were six, and they were angry looking and had all sorts of lightning. Then they came and gobbled you up.” The mother looked horrified.

“Shadow! How could you say such awful things? I thought you said you wanted Zoe to be your friend.”

“I do, mommy! That's why I don't want the scary clouds to come and eat her whole!” The mare looked up, her cheeks flushed.

“I'm so sorry, I don't know what to say.”

“That's... okay?”

The mare brought her colt close with a hoof and shepherded him away. “I'm very disappointed in you Shadow...” her voice trailed off into the crowd.

Zoe and Zecora shared a look. Zoe shrugged and walked off to get another glass of punch. She liked the punch for some reason. She also loved to dance, though she didn't seem to remember how. Looking around, she saw Fluttershy standing near the edge of the floor, smiling and bobbing her head in time with the music. A small purple dragon with green scales danced next to her, wearing sunglasses and doing the hustle. She got another glass of punch. Seems easy enough, she thought. She knocked back the glass of punch in one draught and went to the middle of the floor. A purple mare got Zoe's attention.

“Careful with that punch.” The mare was almost yelling to be heard over the music.

“Why? It's great!” Zoe replied. The purple mare laughed.

“It is! Believe me, that's why you have to be careful. I'm Berry Punch. I mean, I'm in charge of the punch. I'm also Berry Punch, though. Punch is my specialty.”

“Good to meet you!”

“You too! Care for a dance?” Zoe responded by moving over and starting to dance. Berry Punch did the same. By the end of the song, the entire dance floor had made way for the two star dancers, giving quite a show to all who were paying attention. Everypony was having such a good time that not a single party goer noticed the sound of two bumps from an adjacent room.

The door opened and Rarity made a grand entrance. “Well hello again!” The crowd inside cheered, some even clopped applause. “Oh thank you, thank you! I do trust you have all been enjoying yourselves without me.” Pen and Parchment made his way inside, looking around. The party didn't seem to notice or care how long they had been gone. He relaxed.

In the other room, however, was a different story. One griffon's eyes fluttered open. He tried to right himself, but fell onto his side. Arching his neck, he saw that while he was upside down, his paws and talons were up in the air. He was hog tied. Rope, he thought, this will be easy. He wiggled on his back, trying to flip over. He started to tip over, but his talons caught on something.

Arching his neck again, he made out another set of talons. Following them down, he saw his rival. They both seemed to have been dumped in a dark room. Whoever dumped them in here forgot to shut the window, too. It was getting cold as wind whipped in. Shifting wasn't working, so he started to wriggle a talon. After a few minutes of working the rope, he freed the talon. Focusing, he started to scratch at the rope. He hissed sharply. The first thing he scratched was his own arm. There was a groan.

“You're awake?”

“Oooohh, my head.” The other griffon opened his eyes to take stock of his surroundings. He wiggled his hog tied talons. Looking over, he saw his rival. “Oh. It's you.” The griffon worked a talon free and started to scratch at his rope.

“I tried that, it's not going to work.”

“Ow!” There was a sigh. “Look, usually rope wouldn't be a problem, I've gotten out of way worse than this.”

“Me too.”

“Okay, fine. I don't know where you came from, and you still might be a spy-”

“You're the spy.”

“No, you're the...,” the griffon paused and sighed. “I think we're gonna have to work together to get out.”

“Okay. I have a question first. How did you know Rarity's sister was a terrible cook?”

“Rarity was the white pony, right?” The other griffon nodded. “Well, she was getting suspicious and I needed a break, so I guessed.”

“I knew I was me. I mean, that you weren't me.”

“Yeah, me too. Alright, over here.” The griffon pointed his head at a dresser. He then made his way over to it like an inch worm. The other griffon followed... slowly. Eventually, the two made it. “Now, go ahead and use me to get upright. Then you can bite off the ropes. The other griffon nodded. He started to arch his back and right himself, using his rival as a sort of ramp. Inch by inch, he went sideways, then vertical. The griffon twisted his head and gingerly started to nip at the other's rope. There was a small clicking sound and then a squawk as the griffon's center of mass started to shift. He bit down on the rope and there was another squawk as part of his beak nicked the other griffon's leg. The rest of his body shifted, and he fell to his side.

“No no no.” His body then slowly twisted vertical again, but this time leaving him up side down and right back where he started. The griffon stared at his bonds. A worthy adversary. Unfortunately for you, your time is almost at an end. The rope stared back at him, mocking with its unfeeling cruelty. Looking over, he noticed the other griffon was glaring at the rope binding him.

“Soon, you will be mine,” the other griffon laughed to himself.

“Okay, your turn.” The griffon wriggled until he fell over on his side. “I was trying to go the other way.” The other griffon noticed that his counterpart was now on his side, his appendages pointed away. Sensing what he was trying to do, the other griffon started to writhe his way toward the limbs resting on the ground on the other side of the room. A few minutes later, his back had started to ache, but his beak lay inches from the rope ensnaring his counterpart.

“Okay, hold still.” There was some more struggling and some clicking sounds. “I- I can't get it.”

“What do you mean? It's right there.”

“Yeah,” his beak snapped a few more times, “But I can't reach it. It's in a weird spot. Stupid rope! Stop being a butt. I'm your superior!” The griffon started to get anxious. Using his head, he pulled the other griffon's bound limbs toward him. With a squawk, the other griffon tilted toward him. Ever closer the rope came to his beak. Closer and closer, until it finally came to rest... just out of reach. The griffon had no idea how it was even possible. However, both he and his counterpart were twisting their heads, snapping, and reaching to cut rope that was just out of reach. Letting out a grunt of effort, the other griffon reached, stretched, and nipped at the rope.

“Almost... have... it!” The griffon bent himself to bring the rope closer. He felt a tug. The tug became a pull. He then noticed that bringing the rope closer put more pressure on the other griffon's legs. “Muuff, mm fuff! I'fe ulmoft. Noff, Noff, waa!” The griffon tried to undo what he did (whatever that was), but this only pushed the griffon over faster. The other griffon's muffled commands became a cry as he flopped over, his body rolling. This left them in the opposite position. The griffon was now on his back, talons suspended in the air, swaying slightly. The other griffon was now on his side, talons pointed away.

The two griffons shared a look. They knew that the rope had become their undoing. The rope had come to unravel the strands of their very existence. “Look. I know we haven't gotten along. Perhaps in another time, another place, we could have even been friends.”

“More than that. Brothers in arms.”

“Yes. That would have been glorious. Even so, it has been an honor to both challenge you and fight by your side.”

“The honor is all mine.” A bright light filled the room. Their eyes rebelled at the change with a dull, aching, pain. Clearly their doom had come. And, apparently, it was a black, stripey doom.

“Okay, but Rarity, this room's taken.”

“Not that room, right next to it, darling, not that one!”

“Okay.” The zebra turned to leave.

“Wait!” the other griffon called out.

“Yes, please! No more. All we ask is a clean death!”

“Well, a quick one would be nice, too,” the other griffon added.

Nodding, the griffon agreed, “Quick would be nice.”

“Rarity? Do you have anything for crushing griffon heads?”

“For, what was that? I have a battle axe, was that what you said you needed?”

“A battle axe,” the zebra called back, surprised, “where did you get a battle axe? Wait, why do you even have a battle axe?”

“Period raiment, of course. Honestly,” the voice from the other room grew louder as it grew closer, “what kind of pony even thinks about designing ancient guard garments without a battle... oh, dear.” Rarity leaned her battle axe against the door by its head.

“Why are there two suicidal griffons in the guest bedroom?” Asked Zoe.

“Hum. Pen!” Pen and Parchment's face appeared at the door.

“Yes?”

“Pen, why are there two griffons here?” Rarity demanded.

“Well, because you put them there,” Pen and Parchment huffed.

“Yes, but Zoe says they're suicidal? When did that happen?” Pen and Parchment opened his muzzle to say something, but closed it again. After a moment's thought, he opened it again.

“I have no idea,” he added delightfully. A griffon spoke up.

“We have been captured and can't escape.” The other nodded agreement.

“We'd rather face execution than torture.” Rarity let a luscious giggle bubble out from behind a hoof. The two griffons looked at each other.

“Please, we'd never plan on harming you. I just needed to bring you back easily and make sure you didn't damage each other before we had a chance to talk. Execution! Honestly, you two are a regular Cleocloptra and Mark Cantorry. That's a little melodramatic, don't you think?” The griffons looked at each other. One of them looked up at Rarity.

“Does that mean you'll let us go?”

“Of course. As long as you're not planning on fighting anymore. We wouldn't want a visit from Tom, would we?” A large rock floated in and dropped to the ground with a thud. One griffon nodded his head furiously. The other griffon shook his head vigorously. “Good, now then.” With the smallest flash of magic from her horn, both the griffon's bonds fell slack. “A little trick Applejack showed me. I can do it twice at the same time with magic, of course,” she beamed confidently.

Trying not to get up too quickly or look too excited, both griffons threw off their bonds and got to their feet as if they had been strapped down for two days straight. One of them stretched his wings, filling a large portion of the room. The other put his talons on the floor and stretched himself much like a cat. “You know what Pen? I don't think either of them are a changeling. I've seen changelings revert back to their true form if they get hurt. They were both hurt and they're both still griffons. Now, which one of you is Mr. Griffy?” The griffon stepped back and did his best to look kind of offended; he didn't want Tom to get any more animated than he had been not that long ago.

“That's not-”

“I know, it's not your name. Well, I had this made for you. We simply have to do something. We know the names of every-er, we know all the other names, but yours. Now that you have an equally adorable playmate,” both the griffons cringed, “now don't be like that! You two are adorable, and, as I was saying, you'll both be even more adorable with these!” Rarity floated a medal woven into a neckline ribbon over the head of Mr. Griffy. The medal sported an ornate “A” engraved on it. She floated a similar ribbon over the head of the other griffon. This medal had an ornate “B” engraved into it. The griffon angled the medal to the light, let it fall back into place, and took a heroic stance, puffing out his chest proudly. He stopped, noticing that Mr. Griffy had already taken an embarrassingly similar pose. All shared a merry laugh. “Now I propose we all make our way to the main room, we have to discuss some important things.”

All made their way back to the main room of Carousel Boutique. The entire party had dispersed with some notable exceptions. Shiny had curled up in a corner near a fireplace. Pinkie Pie lay on her back, using Shiny as a pillow. Occasionally one of Pinkie's hind legs twitched. Rarity circled the group around her. Joey had joined them at her beckon.

“Well, that certainly was a party to remember.” All nodded agreement. “But, we all must be off to sleep for now. I see that our numbers have grown, however, so we must decide what to do. From Pen and Parchment, Zoe, and Shiny, I've heard that all of our new friends seem to have lost their memories. This can't be an accident, not with so many of you. I have a friend, Twilight Sparkle, who may be able to help, but she's on a special assignment for Princess Celestia in Canterlot itself. She's very gifted in magic, and she's very intelligent. I know she'll be able to find what you all have in common, why you've shown up without being able to remember anything.” Fluttershy looked worried.

“Canterlot? Where's that?” Pen asked.

“Well, it is about a day's train ride away.”

“So, you want us to buy some tickets?”

“Only if you happen to have some spare bits on you, dear.”

“Oh.”

“Don't look so glum, that's the bad news. The marvelous news is that-” Fluttershy gasped in surprise, and burst in.

“We're taking a train to Canterlot tomorrow. Twilight's having a party and we're all going. Pen! You get to come with us and see Twilight.” Rarity nodded. Fluttershy looked worried again. “But we don't have tickets for them all.”

“Why, we don't need them, we have the whole train car. Of course, some of you may have to make yourselves comfortable on the floor but-” This time Rarity was cut short by the breath being squeezed out of her by an exuberant Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, dear,” Rarity wheezed. Fluttershy realized what she was doing and let Rarity go.

“I'm so sorry,” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Not to worry. Now, the train leaves the station at 9 A.M., sharp. Well, what do you all think?” All were excited. Some nodded, others applauded, Zoe did a little jig, but all gave their support to the plan. “Wonderful. Now, everypony go get some sleep. We have a large day ahead of us tomorrow. Griffon A, Griffon B, and Zoe, you can stay here tonight. Is there any pony without a place to stay?”

Applejack, stepped out, “It's kind of late to travel back to Sweet-” she started, but Rarity waved at her with a hoof.

“Except you. Don't even ask, you're staying here too.” Three tiny fillies chattered on the floor.

“Rarity, can Scootaloo and Applebloom sleep over?” Rarity did a quick head count.

“Would you three be okay with the floor? I can get some extra blankets.”

Fluttershy flew over to talk to Rarity, hovering a few inches off the ground. “I can take them. That way they can have a bed.” The three fillies looked up excitedly.

“Yeah, can we?”

“Okay Sweetie Belle, but promise me you will go right to bed when you get there.”

“We will!” Fluttershy made her way over to Pen and Parchment. “So, um, Pen?”

“Yes, Fluttershy?”

“Do you uh, think you might be able to help me with the fillies?”

“I'd be delighted!” Fluttershy beamed at this response, flying in a small circle around the room.

“Oh thank you.”

Rarity looked over at Joey. “How about you, Joey?”

“I'm fine. Don't worry about me.”

“Why not, where are you going?”

“I'm staying with the cakes, I'll be fine.”

“So you know how to get back to Sugarcube Corner?”

“Yeah... Actually, you think you might be able to give me some directions?”

“Absolutely.”

Zecora tucked a nearly unconscious Zoe into bed. It turns out that the mare hadn't taken Berry Punch's advice. Rarity started to give Joey directions. Pen looked all that was happening and observed that after having no direction and no idea what he was going to do, Rarity had given him hope. She had given them all hope. Now they were going somewhere. Now they had some real hope finding out who they were and what they were doing here. And if things didn't work out like that, then they had found something perhaps even better: friends who would be with them whatever happened next.

When Clouds Can't Make Up Their Mind, Make it for Them

Joey looked up at the night sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight, but he still felt strange. The air smelled like a normal night (there didn't seem to be any storms approaching), the wind was calm, the moon was nearing its full cycle, nothing looked out of place. He watched Pen and Parchment and Fluttershy make their way toward her cottage, three tiny fillies in tow. He gave a chuckle and started flying toward Sugarcube Corner. On his way, he couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. The night felt like it was keeping a secret.

“Huh, think I'll take a look around,” Joey said aloud to himself. He flew higher and started toward the edge of the small town. He was about to reach the edge of the town when he heard something. He stopped and hovered in mid air, looking left and right, he didn't see anything. He continued to fly toward Sugarcube Corner, but stopped when he heard it again. It sounded like... shouting? He looked around him again, still nothing.

“Am I going crazy or something?”

“I said STOP RIGHT THERE!” Joey looked up and dove to the right instinctively. He thought he saw a blue blur, but he wasn't sure in the dark. Getting his wings back under him, he looked in the direction the blur had gone. The blur was, in fact, a pegasus like him. Although, this pegasus was giving him a nasty look. “Who are you and where are you going?” it demanded. He couldn't get a good look at the pegasus in the moonlight, but he was sure it wasn't carrying any weapons. He stopped to consider why he was thinking about weapons. “HEY! I asked you a question!”

“Oh, right. I'm Joey.”

“What are you doing?” Joey flew in place, looking blankly at the demanding pony.

“It's just, I thought, you were going to tell me who you were.”

“Yeah, I don't really have time for introductions right now. I'm really busy.”

“Okay. Doing what?”

“Hey, I'm asking the questions here.”

“Okay.” Joey started to fly off. In a flash, the surly pegasus blocked his path, looking fierce. “Look, can't I just get to Sugarcube Corner?”

“Why do you need to go there?”

“Well, I was going back there. I'm staying with the Cakes.”

“The Cakes, huh?”

“Yeah, I was helping with the shop after Pinkie Pie left. I guess she was getting ready for the party-”

“Whoa whoa whoa. You know Pinkie Pie?”

“Yeah, I met her earlier today and she was at the party tonight.”

The pegasus' face fell, “Pinkie Pie told me that she had met a new friend and that there was a party tonight.” The pegasus seemed to get more nervous, “I wanted to be there, but we had sort of a weather emergency. Hey, if you see her, could you let her know that I normally wouldn't just leave her hanging like that?” The pegasus looked away nervously. “You see, I kinda told her that I'd come.”

“Wait, who should I tell her the message is from when I give her the message?”

“Right, I'm Rainbow Dash! Perhaps you've heard of me?” Joey shook his head. This reaction seemed to perk up Rainbow Dash's mood. “Well you're in luck, because I'm only Ponyville's best flier and weather pony. Yep, I'm pretty awesome.” Rainbow Dash's wings continued to hold her aloft as she looked askance and struck a pose.

“Wait,” Joey started, blithely ignorant of Rainbow Dash's awesome pose, “why can't you deliver that message to her yourself? She's still at Carousel Boutique.” Rainbow Dash looked at Joey with a startled expression, holding her pose for a moment, then everything about her, except her wings, sagged with gloom.

“You know what? Forget it.” With that, Rainbow Dash flew away.

“Wait up!” Joey called out after her, hesitated a moment, and then took off after her. Rainbow Dash didn't notice him until he pulled up next to her. “What are you doing?” Seeing him, determination washed over her face and she started to fly faster. “Hey! I want to help.” She stopped suddenly.

“Oh yeah? We had a cloud emergency earlier tonight and now I've got to patrol all of Ponyville to make sure no clouds are left. You go that way around the town and I'll go this way. When you reach the opposite side I'll be waiting. Tell me if you see any clouds.” Without waiting for a response, Rainbow dashed off.

About a quarter way around the town, she started to feel guilty. She'd already made her way around the side of town she told Joey to check out. She was going to finish this side and head home. Joey clearly didn't want to help her deliver the message, tonight had been a real pain, and she let her friend down without meaning to. He wasn't going to help her out so she had no reason to give him her time. She thought of Joey floating by the bridge, looking around for her, alone.

“Ugh!” She couldn't do that. She wiped a hoof over her face and put on more speed. A lot more speed. It didn't take long for her to see that there were no clouds on this side of town, either. “Good, let's just get this over with and get home.” She had planned on landing on the bridge, but she pulled up short when she saw Joey already there. “How- ? When did you- ?”

“I didn't see any clouds.”

“But, but. How long have you been here?”

“I don't know. Thirty seconds, maybe?”

“And you went around the whole town, you're sure?”

“Uh-huh.” Joey nodded.

“Great job. Emergency patrol, gotta go!” Rainbow Dash flew off. Joey followed after her. “What are you doing?” she called back.

“I wanted to patrol with you, if that's okay.”

“You'd just get left behind.” With a grin Joey accelerated, passing Rainbow Dash. Her mouth dropped open. She smirked and redoubled her effort. This time she left Joey behind. Smiling, she looked back. Aghast, she noticed Joey was still behind her. She continued to fly faster, eventually turning vertical and leaving the town far below. Gritting her teeth with effort, she performed and aerial maneuver that pointed her back toward the ground. This time she smiled at the effort, because gravity was working with her as she accelerated. She softened her angle as she approached the ground and flew parallel with a field. She swung around and stopped. Grinning, she didn't see Joey. Panting, she lowered to the ground and started to catch her breath. One of her breaths turned into a gasp as the wind from a flight wake washed over her. Her face and mouth went limp and she slowly turned her head. Joey lay on his back, gasping for air.

“That's the... hardest... I've flown... in awhile,” he managed between breaths. Rainbow Dash trotted over slowly and stood over him.

“Say,” she smiled, “you're pretty fast. Not as fast as me, but you're still fast. I think I got a name for you: Slow Poke.” Joey slowed his breathing a little.

“Please don't call me that.” Rainbow Dash deadpanned.

“Oooo'kay. Listen, this pony needs her shuteye, but stop by next time you're in Ponyville. See you around, Slow Poke.”

“Please don't call me that,” Joey said again, but he looked up to find that he was already alone.

Who needs sleep? Certainly not I's!

Fluttershy, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Pen and Parchment all made their way into the cottage. Fluttershy got their attention. “Okay girls, now straight to bed.”

“Aaaww, but we don't wanna,” Applebloom protested.

“Can't we stay up a little longer?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Now girls-” Fluttershy was cut short by a sudden commotion outside. “What was that?” Peering outside, she shut the door and came back. “Pen, there's a storm outside and my chickens are out of their coop. They're panicking, it's simply awful!”

“I can watch the fillies if you need to take care of them.”

“Could you? Thank you so much!” Fluttershy flew toward the door. “Yes, Hennrietta! I know it's scary.” Her voice trailed off as she left the cottage.

Three little fillies looked up at Pen expectantly. “So, who'd like to play a game.” They all perked up.

“I would!”

“Me too!”

“Me three!”

“Alright, this game's called 'I Spy'. I pick something that I see and you have to guess what it is. You can ask yes or no questions to try and figure out what it is, too. Got it?” Scootaloo nodded furiously while the other two waited, breath bated. “I spy with my little eye something that's orange.”

“Is it an orange?'

“Nope,” Pen replied.

“I know, it's the couch!”

“It can't be the couch, Sweetie Belle, that wood's wood colored.”

“The clock, then?”

“Nah, that's wood colored, too.”

Pen and Parchment interrupted, “You could ask me some questions to help figure out what it is.” Scootaloo looked down, gasped, and looked up, excited.

“I know! It's me!”

“That's correct,” Pen added. Scootaloo jumped into the air, her tiny wings fluttering.

“Yay ,we did it!” Applebloom started to circle herself like a dog chasing it's tail. She stopped and pouted.

“Guess there's no cutie mark for 'I Spy'.” Pen noticed Applebloom's dismay.

“Hey, why don't you try next?” Applebloom perked up.

“Really?”

“Sure, you three play while I go check on Fluttershy.”

“Alright. I spy, with my little eye, something... that's red!” Pen exited the cottage as a flurry of guesses started to pour out.

He braced himself as he headed toward the coop. The wind was howling and clouds had blown in very low. He reached the gate surrounding the chicken's home. After entering the small chicken yard, he saw Fluttershy standing at the entrance to the coop. She was standing perfectly still, statuesque, even. “Fluttershy?” She didn't respond, but Pen could see that she was staring at a lone chicken. The chicken froze and slowly backed up into its home. Fluttershy became animate again.

“Hi Pen.”

“I just came to check up on you. What was that, by the way?” Fluttershy blushed.

“How nice of you. That, that was nothing.”

“But you stared that chicken down and it went into the coop.”

“Yes, it's just a way with animals, I guess. Oh my, look at those clouds!” Pen looked up.

“Let's head inside.” Fluttershy nodded in response.

Back inside, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were still guessing. What was worse, they had started bringing over every object they guessed. A small horde of items had piled up in front of Applebloom, making her look like the pirate queen of household objects.

“GIRLS!” Shouted Fluttershy. The room stood still. “Bed! Now! Um, please.” The three fillies clamored up the stairs. Fluttershy stared after them, then at the pile, dismayed.

“I- I could go put them to bed if you like.” A tear started to form in Fluttershy's eye. “Don't cry, I can clean up here, what what can I do?” Pen started to panic.

“N- no, it's not that, it's just...,” Fluttershy's voice hitched, Pen's heart skipped a beat, “y-you're so nice.” She sniffled, put a hoof to her eye, and started to sob. Pen stumbled over to her. She leaned against his chest and sobbed some more. “There's just been so much, g-going on t-today!”

“Don't worry about that.” Pen let her cry for awhile before he continued. “Look, just go to bed. There's been enough for one day.” Fluttershy pulled back and looked at him.

“You mean it?” Pen nodded. Fluttershy let out a wail. “W-why are you so nice?”

“Don't do that, come on now. It'll be okay.” After a few minutes, she had calmed down a little and Pen brought her upstairs and let her into her room. He went back downstairs and put away the pile the best he could. After that, he went back upstairs. He was going to guess which room the fillies were in, but he saw a tiny hoof shut a door just as he reached the second floor. He chuckled to himself as he moved up to the door and into the room.

The three fillies were in the bed. They had been tucked in, but the corners of the sheets were still popping out, and Scootaloo was popping out of her side. Pen thought to himself that Sweetie Belle might have tried to use her magic to tuck them in when she didn't know how to do so properly. Scootaloo yawned, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were whispering to each other. “Mr. Pen?” Applebloom asked, looking concerned.

“What can I do for you?”

“Did we make Fluttershy angry?”

“No. Why would you think that?”

“She got really angry.” Replied Sweetie Belle

“And she yelled at us,” Scootaloo added.

“Yeah, and she cried.”

“What makes you think she was crying?”

“We saw her,” Applebloom blurted out. “...oh.” Applebloom looked sheepishly down at the covers.

“When she asked you to get into bed, you should have listened to her.” The three started to get anxious.

“We're sorry.” Applebloom looked down and apologized to a pillow. The other two avoided looking at Pen.

“Oh, it's okay,” Pen soothed, “You see, Fluttershy wanted you girls to be in bed for your own good. She wasn't angry at any of you, she was just upset, and she didn't want you to see her like that. Fluttershy had been through so much today that she was really tired.” The fillies went from being anxious to being curious. “When her house started to get stacked into a pile in front of Applebloom, she was overwhelmed. It's not your fault, you couldn't have known. If anything, I should have been there.” Scootaloo pondered that for a moment, then broke the silence that had started to settle on the conversation.

“But that doesn't make sense, you went to help Fluttershy. How could you have known that she'd be upset when she got back?” Pen took that in and smiled.

“I guess you're right. Sounds like I ought to listen to my own advice. Now, I don't want any of you to worry about anything else. Everything's all cleaned up and Fluttershy is getting the rest she needs.” The fillies looked contented and Pen got up to leave. A small voice called out after him.

“Mr. Pen?”

“Yes, Sweeite Belle?”

“Do you think you could tell us a story?” The other two nodded excitedly.

“Of course!” He moved back to their bedside. “Hm. Let's see. Once there were three fillies that made their way into a dark forest-”

“Three fillies like us!” Scootaloo put her hooves on the blanket, flared her tiny wings, and put on a determined look.

“A forest like the Everfree forest?” Applebloom asked.

“Sure. Now these fillies were in the forest to gather some special berries for their grandmare to bake a special pie.” All three looked excited at the word 'pie.' “Once they entered the forest, they found the berries and got ready to head back. However, the path they found lead them around and around, until they couldn't tell which direction was home anymore. 'We passed the way home,' cried one. 'It's getting cold and dark,' the second one noticed. 'I-I can't tell which way we're going,' the third added nervously. They started to argue as night grew closer. But then they heard some of the scary sounds of the forest, and bushes started rustling around them. They became scared,” the three fillies started to get scared, “but then the first filly said something very important. 'I'm sorry we argued,' she started, 'We're in this scary forest but we're only all alone. At least we will be alone if we remain angry and keep fighting with each other. You two are my closest friends, and no matter what happens, I won't let anything get in the way of our friendship.' They apologized to each other and promised that they'd never let anything come between them again. Whatever happened, they would have each other as long as they didn't fight. Suddenly, what was rustling in the forest bushes popped out. It was another filly, but this filly was a zebra.”

“A zebra like Zecora?” Applebloom excitedly inquired.

“Yes and no. This was a girl zebra, but she was the same age as the fillies.”

“Does she rhyme? I like it when Zecora rhymes!” Sweetie Belle chimed. Pen looked around nervously.

“The zebra approached and let them know that she was friendly. 'I have seen your fight... in the middle of your plight. But you put your differences aside... so you could... in your friendship abide.'” Sweetie Belle looked ecstatic. Pen continued. “'Now I know you are good ponies, come I will help lead you to your... homies.'”

“That's not a word,” scorned Scootaloo.

“Have you studied zebrican? Do you know that they don't have a special word for houses?” Scootaloo had no response. “As I was saying, the zebra found the three fillies. All four made their way quietly through the deep, dark forest. They almost ran into a sleeping manticore, but the zebra guided them silently around the sleeping lion without waking him. After more danger, they got out of the forest and found their house. Their grandmare listened to their story and invited the zebra to stay over. Then they got all the berries together, and had so many that they baked two pies and everypony (and zebra) ate their fill. After that they all played together and got safely tucked in to their big, comfy bed. The zebra slept with them that night, too. The end.” By the time Pen had finished, all three fillies were fast asleep. He quietly went to the door, opened it, and shut it again. Sighing, he realized that he hadn't thought to ask Fluttershy where he would be able to sleep. “Archimedes?”

“Hoo.” After a few moments, an owl waddled up the stairs.

“Where do you think we should sleep tonight?”

“Hoo, hoo hoo.”

“You're right, I don't think we should stay on the couch, either. Let's try this room.” Pen opened a room he hadn't been in yet. He was in luck, for to one side of the room was a bed, while the moonlight shone through the window on the adjacent wall. The wind was howling. Sighing, Pen barely made it into bed before he fell asleep.

Pen's eyes shot open. Looking at the night stand, he saw that an hour had passed. It was strange, though, because Pen felt as though his head had just hit the pillow. The room around him was silent. Strange sounds were making their way inside, however. He heard the wind whipping through trees, the distant sound of a tree branch splitting. A sudden groan caused him to shoot up in bed. The cottage itself was complaining. Pen didn’t feel safe anymore.

He was a full grown stallion, he told himself; being scared was silly. His self-comfort didn’t stop the knot in his stomach, and was doing even less for the strange feeling creeping up his back. He looked left, he looked right, but he still felt uneasy. He slowly turned his gaze upward and whinnied in surprise when two gold eyes and a mass of feathers came muzzle to beak with him.

“Hoo!” The owl complained with a flutter of wings, adjusting his perch.

“Archimedes!” Pen exclaimed. “I didn’t know you were on the bed,” he chuckled, “that makes sense.” Pen wondered if that did, in fact, make sense. Deciding he was too tired to care, he put his head back down on the pillow and closed his eyes.

Pen's eyes shot open. Looking at the clock again, Pen saw that another two hours had passed. He shot up in bed. He still felt uneasy. Now, he couldn’t sleep. Nervously, he looked up. He saw Archimedes was still there. In fact, the owl seemed to be taking a nap. Pen would have found this funny, but that meant the owl perching on the bed’s headboard wasn’t the reason why he felt so uneasy.

“Archimedes...” he tried to rouse the owl quietly. Archimedes shifted, but didn’t open his eyes. “Hey, Archimedes, wake up.” Pen gently nudged the owl with a hoof. Archimedes nipped at the hoof, causing Pen to pull it away suddenly. “So you are awake. Something doesn’t feel right, I’m going downstairs to check it out.”

“Hoo.” Archimedes kept his eyes closed.

“Want to join me? Perhaps you’d like to look outside? You are nocturnal, after all.” Archimedes didn’t respond. Instead, his head slowly turned around until it was almost facing the opposite direction. Pen couldn’t speak for a solid minute while he took time to recover from the effect.

“Fine, be that way.”

Pen got out of bed and left the room quietly. The corridor outside was lined in shadow. Pen slowly made his way to the stairs. Along the way, he cracked open the door to the fillies’ room. A small shaft of moonlight bathed the room in blue. He made out three tiny fillies, sleeping their cares away. “Good.” He closed the door and continued on.

Heading downstairs did nothing to lighten his mood. His hooves sounded like drums as he clumsily made his way down the stairs in the dark. Pen felt compelled to announce his presence to the stairwell. “They’ll call me old hammer hooves before long.”

Downstairs had morphed into a subterranean underworld. Half a dozen misshapen forms stood still around the room. Pen felt like he had intruded on a monstrous party, causing all its participants to freeze in place until he went away. He stared at one form in particular, daring it to move. Although, if it did, he had no idea what he would do. The strange creature slowly revealed itself. It was apparently what happened when a chair mated with a lamp. Although Pen could clearly see the outline of a rocking chair and that of a lamp behind it, he couldn’t tell where one ended and another began.

“Okay, there’s nothing here- as I suspected.” Pen turned to go back upstairs. That’s when he heard it. It was a slow, steady sound. He was almost certain he was imagining it, but he was sure it hadn’t been there a moment ago. Nervously he went to a window. It seemed to grow louder as he approached. Cautiously, he felt around for a latch. The sound continued its monotonous beat. Pen wiped away some sweat with his foreleg. There had to be a latch. Something, anything, had to open the window on this side of the cottage. The noise continued. It was hypnotic and seemed to emanate from within Pen’s head. Pen let out a groan of frustration, turned, and bucked the window’s sill. It opened with a creak. He fell to his haunches, chuckling nervously.

“Of course it doesn’t have a latch. That would be useful. Useful and stupid. Usefully stupid.” The beat continued. Pen approached the window with a sigh. He poked his head through, trying to hide his nerves beneath a face of nonchalance. Unfortunately, something attacked the cool countenance, which was replaced by a more fitting mask of panic.

‘Aaahh! Aah, aaaahhhh! My face!” Pen’s four hooves locked as he scrambled around the room. A casual observer might have thought an overzealous brush had separated itself from a street sweeper and was now bent on making the wood floor sparkle. Either that, or a feather duster. Feathers? Pen stopped short in realization. A flurry continued to orbit his head.

“Archimedes? Archimedes!” The flapping mass descended, turning into an owl, once more. “Thank goodness!” Pen scooped up the owl who hooted once and then gasped in the crook of Pen’s foreleg. “You must have been searching outside like I asked.”

“Hhh-uuhhh,” was the only whisper the constricted owl managed.

“Oh, sorry.” Pen gently put the owl down. “You must have been looking for something strange. I guess my head looked pretty strange poking out from the cottage.”

“Hoo.”

“Well, good job Archimedes.” The owl turned his wing and held it to his forehead in salute. Pen returned the salute, closed the window with his magic, and went upstairs. Outside, the wind continued to howl. Inside, Pen was warm. There was nothing to be afraid of. He was really just being a silly pony after all.

Pen lumbered upstairs and wiped a hoof across his eyes. He let out a yawn as he turned into his room. He shut the door with his magic and stared out of the window by his bed. The window looked out onto the backyard. Beyond the back yard was the edge of the Everfree forest. Pen yawned and then chewed at nothing two or three times. The back yard stared back at Pen; the trees were swaying, the clouds inched their way across the sky, the eyes were staring at him. Pen’s muscles tightened as he froze in place.

Two eyes stared at Pen from the darkness of the forest. Pen couldn’t make any form out clearly except for the two eyes. It was as if the eyes themselves were illuminated, but provided no light. They didn’t glow, but could be clearly seen amidst the blackness.

“Wh- wh- wha?’ he stammered. He checked left, then right, he was the only one in the room. His mind frantically looked for a reason that the eyes couldn’t have seen him yet. Afraid to move, but terrified that he might be spotted, Pen whimpered. A few moments passed by. The need to know for sure overcame his fear of moving. Gulping again, he twisted his body in place. As best he could, he started to move out of the window’s view. He was trying to concentrate to see if eyes were following him when a fore hoof caught on the floor. Pen hit the ground with a thud.

Pen got to his hooves, but was too scared to lift himself up completely to look out the window. He lifted himself inch by inch up the wall. With another whimper, Pen passed the window frame and peered over the edge of the window sill. The eyes moved to look at the pony that had just come into view.

“Wait! Archimedes! Is that you out there?”

“Hoo?” A riptide of dread cut Pen’s wave of relief tragically short. He looked up and glimpsed the owl looking at him questioningly.

“Oh gosh. Oh no…,” Pen’s weak exclamation trailed off. He kept his eyes glued to the eyes hovering between the trees amidst the darkness. “Fluttershy? Fluttershy!” he called. There was no response. Fear gave a way to momentary panic. “FLUTTERSHY!” Still nothing. Pen froze for a moment while his mind worked. His eyes lit up.

Pen quickly glanced right, then back at the window, keeping an eye on the eyes. He had seen a book on the nightstand. Concentrating, his horn lit up.

Pen did his best to imagine where the book was, and tried to lift it. His magic wrapped itself around something that started to float. For a moment, Pen felt disheartened as he realized it was going to be too difficult to guess where the book was and where it would be going. An idea made its way past his nerves and to the surface of his mind. Pen smiled at the idea, despite himself.

Pen imagined levitating the book in front of him as he faced the door to the room. That would be just like normal levitation. Continuing to hold onto the book, he would have to open the door to walk out. As the little pony inside his head opened the door with magic, Pen heard a latch click and the room’s door creak. It was working!

Next, the little pony made his way down the hall, book floating beside him. In the real world the eyes were still there, watching. While they still made him nervous, Pen knew they couldn’t see that reinforcements were on their way; pink-maned, yellow-coated, animal loving reinforcements. Pen’s heart warmed as he thought of Fluttershy smiling as she flapped her wings, bobbed softly in place, and holding a white bunny rabbit.

There was a sudden thud. “Oh no!” Pen fretted for a moment but regained his composure. He needed to stay focused. “It’s okay, my little pony. You dropped your book. Just look for it, you can find it.” Turning back to his imagination, the pony had dropped his book, but it had been right next to him a moment ago. He imagined himself finding the book right near his hooves and picking it back up with his horn. The little pony quickly moved up to Fluttershy’s door and banged on it with the levitating book.

There was a crash. “Wait, what?” Pen dare not look away. A few moments later there was the sound of a door softly opening.

“Um, hello?” There was a gasp. "What happened to Angel Bunny's favorite lamp?"

“Fluttershy? Fluttershy!” Another wave of relief overcame the riptide and triumphantly flooded over Pen.

“Pen, is that you? Pen, what’s wrong?”

“In here Fluttershy!” There was the hushed sound of beating wings and Pen felt like he was being watched…

“What’s wrong Pen?” This time the question came from out of Pen’s field of vision, but from directly behind him.

Everything came tumbling out. “I finished putting everything away but I woke up feeling weird, but then I looked up and saw it was just Archimedes, so I went back to bed. But then I got woken up again, and I went downstairs and it was scary with the wind and weird shapes at night. But then I looked outside and got attacked. But it was only Archimedes again. Then I thought everything was safe and fine, but no! It's not fine! There's these eyes staring at me, and they’re still there!” Pen gasped for air.

“Eyes? Where?”

“Right... there,” Pen jabbed at the window, exasperated. “Sorry this has just bothering me all night,” Pen added, realizing how he must sound. Fluttershy flew up next to him and looked out of the window. “You see them?” Fluttershy arched her neck and tilted her head, staring.

“Sorry Pen, I don't see anything out there.” Pen lifted himself completely up. The eyes narrowed, following his movement. Pen whimpered and pranced in place. “My dear, Pen. What do you want to do?” Pen was already nervously fiddling with the window. His hooves couldn't seem to find the latch on this window, either.

“Bu- pu, what? Rrrgghh! Stupid windows!” Pen sputtered.

“Here, like this.” Fluttershy put her hooves on the window, blocking Pen's vision for a single moment. The window creaked open. Fluttershy landed and looked at her flustered friend, concerned. The eyes were gone.

Author's Note

-It was Applebloom's bow.
-End Ch.7

0: Prologue

Rich Soil

“I don't get it sis, why're we helpin' her?” The little filly stared up at her big sister. The filly's wide-eyed stare, innocent face, and honest question drew out a smile from the older mare.

“'Cause, sugarcube, ponies are the best soil I know.”

“But that doesn't make any sense,” the way the filly talked to her sister made the mare smile even wider. The filly had learned a lot about reading and writing in school, but she still carried the thick farm accent the whole Apple Family shared. “She ain't a pony, we don't know her, and she ain't even made outta dirt!”

“You're right, I was usin' “ponies” in the general, you understand. Also, I guess I should'a said ponies are like the best soil I know.” The filly stared up at her sister expectantly. “First off, do you know what's different between dirt and soil?” The filly shook her head. “What's different between soil and dirt is that soil has all the other things it needs to grow crops. You can till, seed, and water dirt, but nothing'll ever grow there because dirt is just dirt. Ponies, well heck, all creatures, have all the stuff they need to grow inside them already. Now, do you know what's different between our farm's soil and the soil up yonder in the Everfree Forest?”

“The Everfree's got bad soil?”

“'Fraid not, pumpkin. Turns out the Everfree's got the same soil we do. That's why everything grows big and large out there.”

“But, but you can't grow crops out there, it's scary and dangerous.”

“And you'd have to tear out all the trees that're out there, and that's just too much work for us to do, it wouldn't make sense. Now, before that forest grew out of control, if somepony had tilled up the ground and took out all the weeds and planted crops instead, why they'd have a farm bigger than our Sweet Apple Acres. Ponies are just like soil. Who ponies grow into depends on what gets put in them, and it's a whole lot easier to plant good things like apple trees than it is to take out strong trees and poison ivy that's already there.” The filly rubbed her head with a hoof.

“So, we're planting pony apple trees, so that those apple trees can plant other apple trees?” The filly looked confused.

“You got it pumpkin.”

“Apple trees planting themselves? I don't get it, Applejack,” the filly looked up and shook her head.

“That's okay Applebloom. I think you'll get it someday. Let's just say this. We're helping our new zebra friend so she can help others.” The filly brightened.

“Okay. That sounds good.”

That afternoon, after Applejack and Applebloom helped their new friend, Applebloom had gone off to school. She hadn't been able to pay too much attention though, she thought all day about what her sister said. When she came back home she worked on some of her homework, completed most of her chores, and then went to find her older sister. The sun had started to set, painting the clouds a light pink. The sky turned lavender, and the heat of the day cooled slightly. Applebloom got distracted by some lightning bugs that were precariously close to the zap-apple trees. She suddenly realized she had stopped and had been staring at the bugs for who knew how long. She continued her search and found her sister checking on an irrigation ditch.

“I think I get it 'sis.” The mare looked up from her work, watching as her sister approached. “Helping out our new friend was like planting a seed in them that'll help them do good things for others.”

“That's right sugarcube, but you're forgetting something.”

“What's that?” Applebloom's excited expression sunk.

“You know how much work we gotta do to keep this farm running?”

“Uh-huh. Sure is. I hate all those chores.”

“I used to feel the same way. But then I realized that without all that hard work, this farm would die.”

“Our farm ain't gonna die, is it?”

“Of course not, the farm's got you, me, your brother, and Granny takin' care of it. And that's not even going through all our kin. But just like our farm needs daily care to grow our food, ponies need attention, too. Without that, all sorts a' weeds and trees'll choke out all the good ponies can do. That's why we Apples stick so close to our kin. It's how we help each other grow.”

“Helpin' other ponies is a lotta work,” Applebloom sighed.

“Cheer up, sugarcube. There are other ponies helpin' us right now.”

“That's why we went to Zecora's!”

“Uh-huh, now be a good sister and help me lift this plank to let the water through.” The filly trotted up. As they hoisted the plank out of the way, a rush of water sped past.

“Hey 'sis?”

“What's up?”

“There's something I want to do.”

In the last light of day Applejack and her young sister Applebloom found a small, relatively flat rise in front of the farm house. They both dug out a hole, filled it most of the way with soil, put in an apple and covered the apple with more soil and a little bit of fertilizer. After that, they put down wood-chips and built a small fence around the newly planted apple. Applejack got a water can and poured a little bit of water on the mound. When they were finished, they proudly looked on at their handiwork. Applebloom spoke up.

"If I can take care of the tree, it oughta help me remember to help take care of other ponies."

"I know it'll sure help me remember." She looked down at her sister. She felt responsible and hopeful for her. The responsibility didn't feel like a burden, though, it felt like a warmth in her chest. The warmth turned to an ache as Applejack realized how fast Applebloom was growing. Applejack also realized she was fighting back a tear.

"Eyup." The deep voice came from behind Applejack and made both the sisters jump.

"Big Mac! You oughta know not to sneak up on unsuspecting ponies like that." The large, red stallion said nothing more, but looked up at the sky. "Oh shoot, we were out so long. You and Granny must be waitin' to have dinner. You must've come lookin' for us."

"Eyup."

As the night fell, all three went inside as a family for a late dinner.

Author's Note

Quick note: Planting an apple on purpose.

4.2: A Horse of a Different Color cont'd

And They’re Off!

The zebra soon learned that taking care of the largest farm she had ever seen was only one of Applejack’s many talents: Applejack could also run. The zebra galloped harder than she ever had, and she was still just barely keeping up with Applejack. The pain on her neck also had something to do with it. She was now regretting her earlier decision. A high-pitched cry pierced her ear.

“Yee-haw! Cutie Mark Crusaders balancers! I wish my friends were here!”

Just before they had left Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack had mentioned that was the name of the farm, the zebra had felt two hooves on her back. It felt strange and familiar at the same time. The two hooves seemed to teeter while trying to keep their balance. The zebra had plucked the disappointed filly off her back before Applejack could notice and Applebloom could fall down. Upon reaching the ground, Applebloom asked the zebra, “Um, seein as how you offered to teach about balance and all, you think I could get a lesson on our way to school?” The zebra looked down at the filly's face. She was looking up at her new friend hopefully.

“No can do butternut,” Applejack replied, “we’re runnin late, so we gotta be runnin.”

“Actually, I think that would be the perfect lesson,” the zebra replied with a smile. Seeing disappointment on that face twice would cause the zebra’s heart to break. “Whatever you do, don’t let go.”

Now they were running through the forest at break neck speed and the extra weight meant that the zebra couldn’t wipe away the sweat beading on her forehead and stinging her eyes. She hoped they wouldn’t have to continue to gallop much longer. The farm had turned into a forest and the trio darted through it on a dirt road. Even though it was around mid-morning, their surroundings became darker the further they went into the forest.

“A-Applejack!” the zebra called out in a labored breath. “I n-need to slow down!”
As Applejack came to a canter she turned her and called back, “Of course you do, we’re here!” The zebra huffed a few extra sighs of relief.

“Where are we?”

“Why it’s Zecora’s,” piped Applebloom.

“I don’t see anything.”

“Right there!” A yellow hoof appeared from the zebra’s peripheral vision. She followed the arm down its length, focusing past it to see a plain hut almost hidden by the forest. Applejack trotted up to the front of the hut and rapped her hoof on the door. The zebra felt something stir inside of her. A voice called from within.

“Who goes there? Are you stallion or mare? There is one more thing I would like to know. Are you friend or are you foe?”

“Howdy there Zecora, it’s Applejack! I was wondering if you’d like to meet my friend out here.” The zebra heard the wooden door open, but she couldn’t see inside.

“Applejack, what a surprise. You’re a soothing sight for my eyes.”

“Zecora, there’s something I need to say. When I didn’t know you, when you first settled outside Ponyville, I was scared of you. Because I was afraid, I believed all those silly things ponies said about you. After that, I even said bad things about you.”

“Dear friend, you have already made amends.”

“Now Zecora, I need to say this because I feel ashamed. I treated you like that and now I need your help. You see, I ran into somepony else that I don’t know how to help. More than that, I need to help my family care for the farm. If I try to help this pony and do that at the same time, both’ll suffer for it. It’s because you accepted my friends and helped us that I realize how important it is to reach out to anypony that needs your help, whether you know them or not. And now I’m asking you to help me and this stranger and it feels like I’m abandoning her, my responsibility, and you. Can you forgive me? I need to hear it If I can ask you to help.”

“Aw ‘sis,” Applebloom sniffed. The one Applejack had been speaking with, Zecora, left her hut. The zebra gasped.

“What have I done to deserve such confession? I cannot give you what you wish, for there is no transgression. A stranger in need is a friend indeed. Finally, you-,” Zecora stopped when her eyes looked past Applejack and rested on the zebra. A bird warbled slowly, distantly in the morning sun. Time seemed to slow. Applejack said something but the zebra didn’t hear. She had believed that she was the only zebra she would ever meet. The foreign trees, foods, and ponies she had encountered left her adrift without her memories. In all the world she knew, she was staring at another mare she recognized. One who might help her know herself. This zebra would be her anchor her in a sea of uncertainty.

Zecora regained her composure, “Come, child, we have much to discuss.” Zecora pointed a hoof at the zebra. “Applejack, come in, you must.”

All four were seated comfortably in the deceptively large hut. A small end table, cook fire, and cauldron were the sparse furnishings of the main room. Herbs were ordered in jars along the small table. The inside of the hut was also lined with a number of masks of various sizes, along with shelves that contained a few books and a number of non-descript bottles.

“Take this my friend.” Zecora gave Applejack a gold colored band. “You have shone a light upon my heart. I believed I wouldn’t see another zebra before my end. This gift is like the one you impart.”
After the four had talked about the morning’s events Applejack stood up, “Alright, it’s time for somepony to go to school.”

“Aaawww.”

“Now I won’t have none of that, sugarcube. You’ve already avoided a good long stretch of school. Just think of today as a short day. Come one now, I’ll go explain what happened to your teacher.”

“Okay.”

“Thanks again, Zecora.”

“No Applejack, thank you. I surely know what to do.” Applejack tipped her hat and scooped up her sister. She reared up with a “Yee-Haw!” and bolted from the room. The two zebras looked at each other for a long time. “I see you have a rank like me.” Zecora was pointing at the zebra’s right fore-hoof. On her hoof was a series of bands. The zebra knew what they were.

“Yes. I have weak magic, can make powerful potions, and am a beast master. However, I have no memories of how I attained this knowledge.”

Zecora wanted to know about her new zebra companion. The zebra relayed to her all she knew, as she had with the Apple family. She was without any memory of who she was or how she had gotten to the farm. That didn’t stop Zecora, though. Zecora started talking in her mother tongue and asked her new friend about the bands on her foreleg. For a reason she didn’t understand, the zebra felt a swell of pride when she looked at her bands. She felt that she had earned every one and she told this to Zecora.

“It is wonderful to hear you speak our language so easily. I have not heard it spoken by another in many seasons, you see.”

“I’m just as surprised that I can speak it, but apparently I can.” The zebra wondered what else she could do.

“Your speech tells me your tribe, they are a friend to my clan.”

“Zecora, could you help me?”

“What assistance can I provide to thee?”

“I was wondering if I could practice my brewing with you. I need to know what I know, if that makes sense. If I know what I can do, perhaps it will help me remember who I am.” Zecora brightened.

“I have always wanted another to help with my potions and brew. Local pony folk have little understanding of brewing’s importance. Searching for peace within sounds like a good plan.”

The rest of the afternoon was spent as the new zebra sought to learn what she could as Zecora’s apprentice. While there was much she already knew, she quickly reached the limits of her knowledge and learning began. The lessons were sometimes painful (in the process of making potions she burnt a hind leg and accidentally broke a spice jar), but Zecora had been a patient teacher. In the space of a few hours the zebra felt as though she’d learned many years worth of knowledge.

By the end of the day the zebra couldn’t help but admire the older mare. She had a peace, a stability that seemed to turn knowledge into wisdom, that saw unpredictability as an opportunity, not a threat. Where some would see a collection of raw herbs and liquids that tasted like bile, Zecora taught her new protégé their names, properties, and how they could be worked together for many different effects.

“Now this balm is only spread. Try to eat it and you could end up dead.” The zebra nodded as her teacher explained the properties and application of a new balm. She scribbled in the notebook Zecora had given her. She was learning so much that she needed to write everything down. “This pill must be swallowed, do not chew. Otherwise it could be harmful to you.” Zecora handed her zebra apprentice a strange looking pill. It fit in the frog of the zebra's hoof as she studied it.

“What does it do?”

“It will strengthen your body for you.” The zebra shrugged while she popped the pill into her mouth. She was careful not to chew, swallowing the thing whole. Her stomach gave a twitch, a turn, and then a violent spasm. Zecora rushed over as the zebra started to cough. The zebra's mouth was pried open.

“I said not to bite down! You must have, your mouth is brown.” The zebra shook her head 'no', but was overtaken as she started to gag. Zecora swept out the legs of her apprentice and flipped her on her back. She stared at the zebra, who was starting to choke. Zecora stamped a hoof down on the zebra's stomach below her rib cage. The zebra's mouth went wide, her back arched. The zebra felt the pill start to come up and get stuck in her throat. Zecora stamped her hoof down again. This time the zebra gagged, rolled to her side, and spit out the pill. She lay, coughing as Zecora came around to her side.

“I- I did not...”

“No, there was another reason why this pill made you distraught.” Zecora picked up the pill, seeing that it was whole. She opened the zebra's muzzle and looked inside. “Rest, gather your strength. There is a power here I must study at length.” Zecora helped the zebra to her bed in the back of the hut.

It was a long time before Zecora came back. The zebra was starting to doze off to sleep when she heard, “Are you well?” The zebra rolled over to see Zecora and nodded weakly. Even though she didn't feel up to much of anything, she was curious to understand what was going on. Zecora raised her hoof and blew on it. Suddenly, the zebra couldn't see. She coughed once and rubbed some sort of powder from her eyes. A luminescent green cloud surrounded her. “It seems you do have a story to tell. This powder sticks to magic well. Now, we can see there is a magic surrounding you. This might have caused your choking on the pill we brewed.”

The zebra looked around. She had thought that the entire room was glowing because everything she looked at had a strange green glow around it. She looked at her own hoof, bringing it close. When she did, the powder melted away from her hoof and joined the rest of the cloud clinging to her. Small piles of the powder started forming as the parts of the dust that weren't sticking to the zebra were falling to the floor.

“I have an aura! Wait, why do I have an aura?”

“This magic is perhaps more powerful than this forest's flora. We may find Twilight in Ponyville's agora.”

“You don't know what makes it do this? Do you know of another who can provide assistance?”

“I do not know this magic's genesis. Twilight Sparkle, however, may help us understand its significance.”

“Zecora, I... thank you for helping me.” Zecora came close and smiled.

“Just seeing you has filled my heart with glee. We must hurry to reach Ponyville while there is light. As it is, I fear we will at night.”

Zecora grabbed two cloaks and some supply bags for them. She draped a cloak over the zebra and took all the supply bags herself, just in case the other zebra was feeling weak.

The zebra stopped and her eyes widened. “Zecora? My name's Zoe. Maybe it was the dust, or maybe it was just my life flashing before my eyes while I almost choked to death (thanks again for saving me, by the way) but I remember my name is Zoe!”

As they traveled to Ponyville, speaking the zebra tongue, Zecora came to understand more about the kind of zebra Zoe was. She appreciated Zoe's company as if she were a lost cousin she was meeting for the first time. Zoe already knew this was the start of a beautiful friendship.

Author's Note

End Ch. 4