The Prince of Light

Ah! There you are! I've rehearsing my story for you, and... I absolutely hate the way it sounds so far, so I've decided that I'm going to tell you a different one! Don't worry though! It's still relevant. I just need a little more time to come up with a proper way to tell you my story.

Why do I need all this time you ask? Well, one usually remembers the good stories, not the facts and figures, so this story just has to be incredible... Not that this story isn't fact! It is very much! You could trust this story more than you could trust your own legs to carry you! Yeah, yeah, I see the irony there. Don't rub it in.

Now, about this story. This is the back story for one of... uh... his companions. His best friend actually. The first one to have ever seen him. He was a stallion who lived in Ponyville. His name was Truth Turner, and he lived with his brother Time Turner in his clock shop. He was a unicorn with a gray spikey mane. His coat was a musky grayish blue, and he always had dirt on his hooves.

Now, Truth Turner. He was a character. Before he met my friend, Truth Turner was pretty much friendless himself, with the exception of one other stallion who I will probably get to later today. Everypony looked down on him, and His brother was ashamed to be associated with him. It was all because of one of his signature traits, a trait seemingly unique to him, faith.

You might be wondering why I said that faith was a trait that he had in particular. More than anypony else. Also, why other ponies shunned him for it. I mean, pretty much all ponies are faithful, right? They all know that Celestia watches over them during the day and her sister during the night. There isn't really much doubt there. Nonbelief is pretty much ignorance more than anything else, but I wouldn't really call what they have faith. For me, faith is believing in something you can't see. Celestia you can see. There's no faith needed there, and sure, everypony's faithful to them, but it's because of their deeds and incredible magical abilities.

Now, you may be asking what did Truth Turner believe in if he didn't believe in the royal sisters? Well, I never said he didn't believe in the royal sisters. Like I said, that would be just ignorant. He acknowledged their authority and was ever-conscious of their power. It was just that he believed in something he himself had never seen. Who no pony had ever seen. Well, actually it was a couple things no pony had ever seen.

One, he believed that there was something else out there. What do I mean by that? I mean that he believed that there was something or someone out there with even more power than Princess Celestia or anything produced in Equestria for that matter. He believed that some being or beings watched over all of them, controlling every aspect of their lives. He also sensed an aura that accompanied these hypothesized beings, and he noticed that every pony had that aura. Some beings, he noticed, were flooded in the stuff, while others you could barely sense it at all. That wasn't the reason ponies shunned him though. He usually kept his senses and that belief to himself. It took me ages to him to get it out of him, and don't think he even ever told his other friend.

His other belief was the one that got him in trouble, and the one that ended up becoming his cutie mark. What was exactly is his cutie mark? Well, right on his side was a peculiar mark that looked like a bloody handprint. Yep, You guessed it. He believed in humans. That felt kind of weird saying it out loud. Let me rephrase it. He believed that there were humans in Equestria. About this belief, contrary to his other one, he was pretty outspoken.

His parents were astounded when they saw him talking about humans with that print upon his flank. They just couldn't believe it. They sent him to around twenty different licensed cutie mark interpreters, and they all ended up coming up with very different, and equally hilarious, theories.

One thought the hand kind of looked like a turkey and suggested getting him a flock to watch over. Another thought it looked like a paint splatter from a paintball gun; That year had some pretty awesome birthday gifts. My personal favorite is one where the doctor said that the cutie mark represented a talent for finger-painting. Isn't that hilarious?! It contradicts itself! You need fingers to finger-paint! Well, since you get your cutie mark from you discovering your own destiny, Truth Turner knew the entire time that he was destined to become an anthropologist. He truly had faith that they were out there somewhere.

Truth Turner's faith greatly embarrassed his parents. So much so, that they took him out of the public school system, which didn't really help his friend situation much. He had to learn pretty much everything from checking out and reading books from the library. He's actually number two in the 'most books read' category. Right after you know who.

He read up on everything he could about humans, even though most, if not all, of his reading material came from the fiction section. Frankly, that still wasn't very much information. He longed for more. He would often set out on what he called 'expeditions' looking for any trace of human activity. He always got lost or hurt, and never found anything. It was actually on one of these expeditions that he met his only friend. Should I tell you that story now? I guess I should. I have enough time.

Okay, so one day, upon reading one book about humans, Truth Turner learned about their obsession for shiny things. Truth Turner, being a young colt at the time, didn't really have any money to get anything shiny, so he decided to search the outskirts of town for trinkets and treasures. I really don't know what he planned to do with it, but that's not really important. He did this for several days, and each day he noticed that there was a colt that watched him on his way out.

One day, that colt decided to follow him to see what he was up to. That colt's name was Vapor Trail. He was a character. If I had one word to describe him, it would probably reclusive, but if I had two, the second word would be humble. I mean, it wasn't really hard for him. He wasn't particularly good at anything. Even when my story begins, he still doesn't have a cutie mark yet. He has jet black, slicked back hair and a pale yellow coat, similar to the one of his nature loving neighbor's.

You'd think that he'd some type of high flying pegasus due to his name, but you'd be wrong. Okay, You'd be somewhat correct. He was a pegasus, but minus the high flying part. Actually scratch the flying all together. He had a rare type of birth defect that left him wingless since infancy. Is wasn't all bad though. He could still walk on clouds, and he could control weather a bit too, but there's only so much you can do with fog and dew.

He grew up in Cloudsdale where his parents still live today. His childhood wasn't really that tough, but to him it was awful. Being the only one in a pegasus school who couldn't fly felt like the worst thing in the world. He had to sit out for all flying related games, and he was occasionally teased for it. "Constantly" if you ask him. It really could have worked out for him too. One day, a filly stood up for him when some bullies were picking on him, but, to him, it seemed she did that for everypony who was being picked on, and she probably did it more for the attention than actually wanting to help. At least that's what he thought. The idea that some would want to be his friend seems foreign to Vapor. He ended up excluding himself becoming a loner and a hermit. The second he graduated, he moved out of Cloudsdale and eventually to Ponyville.

Now, why was he in Ponyville at this time? as a colt? Usually, during the summer, his parents would send him down there to stay with his grandfather who was afflicted with the same condition. This was both a blessing and a curse. Even though his grandfather gave him somepony to identify with, he also inherited his grandfather's disdain for the rest of his family and the pegasus race in general. It's not like he wanted to exterminate them, but you could definitely notice him rolling his eyes when one flew by.

Now back to the story. So Vapor Trail was tailing Truth Turner on his way to seek for trinkets. Truth was completely clueless to his presence and just continued to scour the ground. Even as a colt, he got pretty intense about things. Usually, Truth Turner found nothing on his expeditions, but today he found a bit of metal on the side of the road. At the time Vapor Trail too had entered a phase where he wanted metallic things. I don't remember why. He just did. So, he decided to try to jump forward to try to swipe it. Lacking the strength of an earth pony though, he failed to jump far enough and ended up injuring himself.

Now, as you can imagine, Truth Turner would probably be very surprised from this encounter, but it wasn't for the reasons you'd expect. He wasn't surprised that an undetected pony jumped out at him; He was surprised that he didn't detect him at all. Remember when I mentioned that aura earlier? The one that supposedly everypony had? Well, I lied. Vapor Trail had no trace of this aura. Truth thought that meant there was something special about him, so he took that moment to help the poor colt up. He dusted him off , walked him home, and even ended giving Vapor that piece a scrap metal he found.

That's one thing I don't get. That little bout of friendship. Just because he was different, he decided to help him out. Of course Vapor Trail ended reciprocating that friendship, friendship he never truly found in Cloudsdale. They became great allies as well, but it just seemed that that random act of kindness was uncalled for. Whatever. Not my call. That's just what happened.

Okay, What do I talk about now? I'm kind of done here, yet we still have some time left. I know that the others like to have their recordings of me to be in nice equal segments, which is pretty boring if you ask me, so I need something else to talk about. Hmm... Have you ever had the food here? It's not all that bad. Actually a lot it is bad. Eh, It's all horrible. I really miss real food. Oh! You know what I miss the most? Chocolate milk! I know I didn't really care for the stuff before, but you don't really love anything until it's gone, right? The next time you come, could you bring me some chocolate milk? and real food as well! Make sure whatever you bring me has a lot of veggies in it. This debacle has made me make a lot a dietary changes. I really need all those vitamins anyway. I doubt there's much in what they serve us.

Well, I have nothing else to tell you. Tomorrow, I should be able to talk about him, so get ready. Bring a pen and some paper if you have to. Also, remember as much as you can about those stallions I told you about. There's a lot of details that may come back later. Au revoir mon ami, I'll see you tomorrow.