Chapters One & One-Thousand Daily Pony Challenge Entries
10/15/13- Teacher Plz & Pony Heads
I haven't been in Ponyville long. I used to be human. The day that I woke up on the ground in Ponyville center was one of the most traumatic days of my life. Here I, a common human, woke up to find that I had turned into a pony over night and then dropped into a world I knew little about, with Pinkie Pie screaming in my face. Thankfully she realized that my own screams were ones of terror, not delight, and summoned some of her friends post haste.
I lay quivering on the ground shouting at the 'intruders', panic doting my every facet. Twilight Sparkle used her magic to put me into a peaceful slumber while Applejack and Rainbow Dash carried me to the hospital, and there I awoke; ready to approach this new development with my head on a bit straighter.
There I found out that Twilight discovered an unusual magic aura around me. Residual traces of a powerful form of transportation and transfiguration magic flecked my coat. When I told her that I wasn't a pony she believed me and with little ado she brought me to the attention to the resident rulers; Co-rulers Princesses Celestia and her sister Luna. Without too much questioning they declared me safe, provided I am kept under a watchful eye, and allowed me citizenship. Be I a citizen or not, I still had nothing here, and I had left behind so much.
Soon after I was released from the hospital. With no home and no money to my name I bounced between the homes of Twilight's various friends. I slowly learned more and more about this strange world. Almost immediately I noted that there were ponies that were different from one another. Rainbow Dash had wings, Rarity had a horn, Applejack had neither, and Twilight Sparkle had both.
Twilight explained that she is an 'alicorn' princess of Equestria, that Applejack is an 'earth' pony, Rarity is a 'unicorn', and Rainbow Dash is a 'pegasus'. Pegasi can, naturally, fly, unicorns can use 'magic', which I still know little about, and earth ponies are extraordinarily strong and are in tune with nature. Meanwhile alicorns get the best of all three races.
Twilight tried her best, but her teaching methods were arduous and sapped at my willingness to continue life. Finally I burst. She was rambling on, explaining how pegasi fly, when I cried out for reprise.
“Twilight! Please stop!” I called out suddenly, raising my head from it's position; firmly planted on the flat of the desk I was seated before.
“Do you need a moment to get caught up in your notes?” She smiled, her head swiveling in my direction her; her ears as pointed as her wings. When she gets caught up she goes and goes. I don't think she even 'sees' while shes going at it. She's so lost in her thoughts she doesn't even notice that I had lost track of what she's been saying for the last half hour, my murmurings for her to cease falling upon deaf ears.
“No Twilight. I don't need a moment to get caught up. I am so utterly lost. I don't even know how far back you need to go.” I sighed heavily and my wings fell limply to my side. I dipped my head to the floor. “This isn't working Twilight. I am a good student, but your teaching methods are too much for me to keep pace with. Reciting facts and figures to me isn't helping at all. These are things that everyone learns at an extremely slow paces over several years while in elementary and high school.”
“What's a 'high school'?” She asked me, her head canting to the side in cute curiosity.
“It's a second school system that teen age students enter for four years. It's a lot like the first school you go to, but the day is divided into several periods. The students can choose what courses to fill those periods with, except for the basic classes that everyone has to take.” I explained to her, roaming dangerously far off topic. Learning about my world put Twilight into a fervor that was much more heated than the one she entered when she tried to teach me about hers. Within moments a quill and parchment levitated over and I could hear her scribbling away vigorously.
“How fascinating!” She peered at me from over the top of her parchment. “I assume the students choose what courses they take based on what they want to do in life, correct?”
“Y-yeah. I took a lot of science courses in school. I wanted to be a doctor, but it was a long path and I eventually changed my mind and decided that I wanted to enter law enforcement.” I explained to her.
“Oh! That's what Canterlot High was! I knew it was a school and it was called Canterlot High but I never understood what a high school was!” Twilight had told me about her adventures in a human world. Sadly it was not my human world. Come to find out I couldn't use the mirror at all. Twilight was able to peek her head through its surface, but when I tried all I got was a sizable bruise.
“Twilight were getting off topic.” I sighed heavily once again. I felt a frown tugging at my mouth. “I don't see how I'm going to learn all of this stuff in a couple of weeks.”
“Well I'm going as slow as I can go.” She told me, concern filling her features.
“I know you are, but have you ever considered you might not be the best of teachers.”
“I'm not trying to be rude. I just...” I let my words drift.
“You need a real teacher!” Twilight said suddenly, her spirits lifting. “You're right, and it's important that your need for knowledge be met before my want to teach. Let's go, I know just the mare.”
And thus Twilight levitated over a saddle bag and draped it over my back and burdened it, thus me, with a fresh load of books, and together we headed out the door of her library and into Ponyville.
I haven't been in Ponyville long. My time spent here has mostly been spent inside the Golden Oak Library. It was a wonderful source of knowledge, but there was no method to the madness. I had no base to go off of with pony history, anatomy, custom, and traditions. You have to have a foundation to build a building and Twilight just didn't know where to start. Most foals learned this kind of stuff over the several years they attend school and during time spent with their family. The elementary stuff, like how their bodies worked, and their etiquette. I had a grasp on pony body language, seeing as I emulated most of it on a instinctual level, but their customs were lost on me. Especially ones regarding Pinkie Pie, but Twilight assured me that even she did not understand how that pony worked.
Off in the distance I could hear children playing. Or foals as they were called. It was scary how many parallels our world had. Children still sounded and played like children, pony or human. These sound brought to me a type of nostalgia that was discerning. As Twilight and I approached the school house and attached playground the jovial sounds of children having fun grew louder, and soon they were all in sight. The girls and boys or actually, the fillies and colts came out of the wood work to gather around Twilight. Some of them bowed, but three fillies in particular ran right up to her and threw themselves into her hooves.
“Twilight!” They shouted in unison as their little bodies wrapped around Twilight's various limbs. Twilight giggled uncontrollably as more foals joined and a pony pile formed around her. Unfortunately I was dragged into it and ended up under the weight of Twilight and several foals in a writhing, giggling, mass of pony.
“Everypony! Please show some respect, Princess Twilight is a princess after all!” A young mare quickly trotted over to the scene. She was a vivid reddish pink with a two tone pale rose mane with even paler highlights.
“That's quite alright miss Cheerilee. I've been telling ponies since day one to treat me no more different than they had before.” Twilight looked up at Cheerilee from her back while most of the schools population glomped her.
“And that's quite all right Miss Sparkle, but it's still important they respect everypony's personal space. Your friend there got dragged into it. Everypony, please.” She beckoned the foals to disperse. While offering a hoof to me so I could get on my feet.
“Sorry Twilight, and mr. pegasus sir.” A southern drawl rang from from a yellow filly that was the leader of the charge.
“Yeah, were sorry too Twilight!” Two other voices, an orangish-brown filly with a purple mane and a white marsh-mellowly filly with a purple and pink mane, apologized as well.
“It's okay girls. Though, Cheerilee is right. It's okay to pony-pile me like that.” Twilight smiled heartily. “But it's important to be respectful of everypony's personal space.”
“Recess will be over in ten minutes, everypony.” And with that all the colts and fillies shot off in various directions, leaving Twilight, Cheerilee, and I alone to talk. I already had a working suspicion on what Twilight was planning, and her next words confirmed it for me.
“So Cheerilee, do you have space in your class for one more?”
“There's always room in the school for a foal who wants to learn.” Cheerilee said without missing a beat.
“Well Patience here isn't exactly a foal.” Twilight gestured to me.
“P-patience?” Cheerilee turned to me. “There's no way you haven't been through school already?”
“Well I have, but not here.” I said tentatively, unsure of how much to reveal about my origin.
“All Equestrian schools follow the same standard, Cloudsdale to Manehattan. Where ever your went to school you would have learned the same stuff there as you would here.
“Yeah... no.” I shook my head. “I'm not from this world.” I ventured with my words slowly, hoping Twilight would jump in if I were about to say something I shouldn't have. She didn't so I felt it was okay to go into more detail. “Up until around two weeks ago I wasn't even a pony.” The look of confusion that spread across Cheerilee's face was novel.
“Not a pony?” Cheerilee turned to Twilight for confirmation, and than began to laugh. “Oh, ho ho, you almost had me miss Sparkle.” She smiled brightly, but it faded when Twilight's expression did not falter.
“This is completely serious Cheerilee. Patience used to be a human, a species I've seen, and been, before. He's stuck here and he knows not a single thing about our world. From experience, I know how scary that can be. I want to help him, but it turns out that I'm not that best teacher.
“He's made a rather valid point that everything he needs to learn is taught to our foals as they grow and go through school. He's very intelligent, but there's so much ground to cover. Now that I think about it; too much ground to cover for me to teach him. If he is going to be a citizen of Equestria he needs to understand the world he now lives in, and the body he inhabits.
“His curriculum definitely needs to be mixed with real life experience, but before he even starts he needs a teacher who is experienced. He needs you Cheerilee.”
To her credit, Cheerilee did not falter. She took stock for a moment and collected her thoughts and then turned on me.
“It's safe to assume you already know math and grammar, correct?” She asked me.
“Um, yes. Along with a basic understanding of the sciences that have no magical influence. I'm here more for a history and culture lesson.” I explained.
“Well recess is over, come with me.” She began to move to the school house.
“N-now?”
“Yes.” She told me, and then turned to the foals in the playground. “Recess is over! Everypony to your desks!” The colts and fillies whined as they made their way back to the room but assembled themselves in an orderly fashion. The group entered the schoolhouse, the teacher and I pulling up the rear, and settled down in they desks. Cheerilee led me to the front of the class and indicated for me to stand in front of all the foals. I stood there, feeling awkward, until she began to address the class.
“Okay everypony. As you all can see there's somepony new in the class today. Everypony say 'hello' to Patience.”
“Hello Mr. Patience!” The class rang out in unison.
“Are you here to teach us about something cool?!” The orangish filly with a purple mane asked me.
“No, Scootaloo, Patience is here to learn.” Cheerilee answer the inquisitive filly's question. “Mr. Patience comes from a land far away from here. He doesn't know much about our customs and our history, so I've invited him to be my assistant so he can participate in class.” So I'm her assistant now, clever.
“Where do you come from mister!?” The red and yellow filly with the southern twang asked me.
“Probably somewhere dumb.” I heard another filly, pink with a purple and white mane, whisper to her gray friend.
“Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, care to share your conversation with the rest of us?” I hear Cheerilee's voice ring out from behind me.
“Eh he he, I-I was just saying, um, he probably comes from somewhere... cool?” She plowed her way through the bluff with the grace of a bull in a china shop.
“Well Patience where do you come from?” I threw Cheerilee an incredulous glance.
“It's really, really far away, and the people there act differently.” I said slowly, no need to reveal that I was in fact an alien.
“Mr, what's a 'people'?” The white marsh-mellowly one asked me.
“Oh, they don't use nouns like 'everypony' or 'pony', they say 'everybody' and 'people'. People is just a word that describes a set of beings. It would be more appropriate to use the word 'people' if you're addressing a group of mixed species. Like if gryphon and a pony are sitting at a table. You can't say 'those ponies' because the gryphon isn't a pony, and you can't say 'those gryphons' because the pony isn't a gryphon, so you say... people.” I tapered my long winded explanation when I realized that I was doing Cheerilee's job. “Right, so it's nice to meet everyone... opps, I mean everypony.”
“Okay, everypony, I know we've already done a lesson on cutie marks, but I think for Patience sake I should cover it very briefly.” She went to her desk and shuffled through the paperwork inside until she found two pictures. She marched up to the blackboard and stuck them onto the surface with a bit of tape. Right at that moment there was a collective gasp going around the room.
“He doesn't have a cutie mark!” Scootaloo pointed out.
“Oh ehm Cee , not another blank-flank. An adult too, how lame.” Diamond Tiara said in her prissy valley girl tone. Silver Spoon giggled like a good little follower. I looked around the class trying to identify what in the world a cutie mark was. I finally concluded that it must be the butt tattoo that every pony seemed to have. Well not every pony, I didn't have one, and neither did the three fillies that charged Twilight earlier. Upon hearing the word 'blank-flank' the trio all frowned and cast glares at Diamond Tiara and then exchanged glances between themselves for a few moment.
“Yes Patience doesn't have a cutie mark.” Cheerilee took charge of the class, quieting down the chatter. “What you all don't know is that he was involved in a magical accident and was deprived of his pony memories. He lived in this far away land but then the accident happened and he came here. He lost his identity and his knowledge about what it means to be a pony.” The explanation was simple and had holes I could jump through, but it worked for the foals.
“Back to the lesson, everypony.”
One & One-Thousand Daily Pony Challenge Entries
10/16/13- The Goon & Rainbow Dash
Twilight Sparkle was standing in front of me, talking incessantly, but I did not hear a single word she said. She spoke of theoretical physics and of magic. She theorized, hypothesized, and proposed reasons for how I came to be in her presence, I did not care. She spoke volumes about wormholes and magical dissonance, I just stared. She probably assumed I was in shock, and I was but not because I had just been dragged out of my computer chair and dropped in the middle of Twilight library. Well actually; that is why I was in shock, but not because of the dragging and dropping, but because...
"You're Twilight Sparkle." I said, my eyes wide, my mouth slightly agape.
She stopped her rant.
"Tha-That's right. How do you know me?"
"How could I not know you?! This is incredible! I'm in Equestria!?"
"That's right." She said hesitantly. "Did you come here on purpose?"
My unwavering attention was focused on her I felt an odd giddiness. Moments ago she was merely a character in a TV show. An incredibly in depth character designed to empathize with as many people as possible while keeping the semblance of an individual and of course, at least to someone as withdrawn and embellished in surrealism as myself, she was an utterly intoxicating character; and she was standing in front of me. She wasn't just a character anymore, and my surrealistic ideas, running wild in my unconfident and introverted mind, suddenly became distinctly possible. I chose this moment to start chuckling madly.
"I'm in Equestria!" I exclaimed, completely ignoring her question. I made it! I when I saw that link on the forums of my favorite fan site I wasn't taking it seriously! It was a tutorial on how to tap into your 'inner unicorn magic". I'd always fancied myself a unicorn were I to be ponified, so I clicked it for shits and giggles. Actually now that I look back on it I felt pretty stupid sitting in my computer chair trying to "align myself with Equestria's ley lines", but when something in my mind clicked into place, as if I place the last piece into the puzzle, I stopped feeling stupid, and I started concentrating on what I wanted, and magic did as advertised; and soon I was standing before a bewildered, and concerned Twilight Sparkle.
"Please tell me you're not an evil overlord here to take over Equestria?" Twilight deadpanned.
I paused and looked at her seriously.
"Why would I even try?! You and your friends would just blast me with the elements and then i'd be back home."
"You know about the Elements."
Crap, should I tell her about the show or play possum?
"I know everything about you and your friends." I blurted out. Oh crap, does my brain even consider stopping to think about what I say before I say it? The adorable unicorn before me went wide eyed and backpedaled away from me.
"Are you some kind of stalker?" I was caught off guard, they have stalkers in Equestria? Well of course, it's possible that the show isn't 100% accurate.
"N-no, I'm not... not really, I like you," I winced, "As a character," I grimaced again, this was coming out all wrong. I paused to think, but I found no easy way to comfort the scared Twilight.
"There's no easy way for me to explain all this, but I'll try." She looked like she was about to bolt from the room, magically or otherwise. "Where I come from you aren't real. You're a character in a show." She wasn't expecting that, the look of fear was replaced by a look of confusion. Either she didn't know what I meant by 'show' or the whole concept was just too much.
"You mean po, uhh, things like you sit around watching reenactments of my life?" Good ole theater. At least she understood the concept.
"Uh well yeah, but until today I assumed that you were a figment of someone's imagination, brought out to serve as a form of entertainment, you know... Not really... Uh real."
"How much of my life have you... watched?" I could see the whole concept was giving her the creeps. I stopped to think about it, if I knew that there were people somewhere that were watching me I think I'd have trouble doing anything normally.
"Well it's not like were watching you from afar with some cosmic telescope. I can't tell you what type of shampoo you wash your mane with or what your innermost thoughts are." I explained, trying to assuage her. "We reenact your bigger achievements and triumphs. We know your motivations, your personality, but your opinions and feelings are left to speculation, cause you know that makes for a more relatable... character."
Twilight sets her haunches on the floor and gazes at the roof of her home.
"I'm pretty sure no ones watching now." I say stupidly, grimacing once more at my thoughtless words.
"How do I know if they're watching or not..." She said, rhetorically I assumed, but I answered anyways.
"Look I don't believe that we are directly watching you." I said, pausing to look for a way to put my thoughts into words. "Well take for instance: I'm not from Equestria, in fact I'm probably from an entirely different universe right."
"Multiverse theory." Twilight said under her breath.
"That's right." I said as I approached her, once I was in front of her I sat on the floor so I could be at the same level as her. "So what if our universes are neighbors?"
"So what if they are?"
"Well that means information could bleed from one to another. I mean; name a city."
"Manehattan."
"Manhattan."
"No mah-a-ne." Twilight punctuated her pronunciation, suddenly adopting a stern librarian look about her.
"No... Where I come from we have a city called "Man-hattan", our race is know as 'man' while your are ponies, but you all have manes, so what if the pony who named Mane-hattan got that name from an information bleed? I mean look at Canterlot, we had a legend about a great ruler who lived in a castle city know as 'Camelot' who helped bring peace to a discordant world with the help of a powerful weapon."
"Great ruler, Princess Celestia. Canterlot , Camelot . Discordant, Discord. Powerful weapon, Elements of Harmony." She chanted the connections aloud as she drew them together.
"I mean the director or writers of the show could just be really in tune to the information that leaks out, they might be having really abstract dreams of your latest exploits, events that are strong enough to leave an impact that bleeds through, like blood through gauze. So all we are really seeing is your greatest moments, ones your should be proud to share." Woah there; where the hay is all this wisdom coming from, but I'm not complaining cause that made her perk up.
"You're right it probably is some kind of information bleed," She chuckled a bit, "In fact we probably have entertainment about some of your famous, pon, err," She trailed off looking for a way to, not rudely, describe a plural gathering of my kind.
"Person singular noun People as a plural noun, man or men for males. Girls, women, lady, but not mares, for females, and children are kids and either boys or girls." I explained the various descriptive terms of the human race, and much to my delight, Twilight gave a display of her magic as she summoned a bit of paper and a quill from the nearby desk to write down what I was saying. I wore a very mirthful smile, which was received by a frown.
"Are you going to smile like that every time I do something 'in character'?" Damn she was good.
"Probably." I admitted, no point in beating around the bush. She just shook her head and brought a hoof to one of her temples.
"Ok so here's the plan," She brought out a fresh sheet of parchment and began to scrawl.
"A checklist?" I asked, my mirthful smile returning. She stopped writing and sent the list away, she ran through some kind of breathing exercise I recalled from the latest episode. She seemed rather aggravated about my preconceived, and correct, notions. I guess I'd be pretty irritated if someone knew what I was going to do before I did it, and smiled like a goon as I did my thing.
"Sorry, I'll try to tone it down."
"It's fine, lets just go to Rarity's boutique, I'm sure you know who Rarity is, she, and Spike, can watch you as I gather everyone else, then we can figure out what to do."
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One & One-Thousand Daily Pony Challenge Entries
10/17/13- Chasing a Dream & Princess Twilight Sparkle
I sighed contentedly as I doodled in my notebook. My best friend, Pander, snickered at me from the bench seat beside mine. I felt his hoof jabbing into my side and was pulled from my wandering thoughts.
"Dude you best pay attention or Professor Hoofensnaple is gonna have your flank." I couldn't help the involuntary snicker that I produced whenever someone said my Professor's name aloud. "What are you drawing anyways?" My friend asked, peering over my leg at my notebook. I blushed profusely and scrambled to close my notebook. I ended up knocking it off the table instead, and much to my chagrin Pander snatched it off of the floor. He flipped through it and I buried my face into my legs and chest as I slumped against the bench.
"No way! Don't tell me you're totally crushing on Princess Luna!" He said, perhaps, a little too loudly. I was blushing full force now. I could feel the eyes of my fellow college students in bench below, above, and to the sides of me and a small wave of snickers flowed from them and assaulted my ears.
"Yo! Not cool!" I hissed under my breath, snatching my notebook from his grasp. He looked about, noticing the glances of the other, guilt becoming apparent on his features, but without a beat he assuaged the onlookers.
"Got you !" He said with loud deliberation. "You should have seen the look on your face when I yelled that out." I just just frowned at him but his ploy seemed to work; the onlookers suddenly had the sudden 'realization' that I was simply the butt end of a prank and that I was, apparently, not 'crushing' on Princess Luna, but the reality was quite the contrary. On almost every page of my notebook, and, unknown to Pander, in every notebook I owned was a doodle of some sort that related to Luna. I had drawn her cutie mark countless times. Even so far at to draw my own and hers inside of a heart.
It has been a little more than one year since she has returned and a little less than one year that I had know about her. You can literally use my notebook as a reference for the day I first saw her. If you flipped through my notebook the first Luna 'entry' you would find would be on the day after she was reintroduced to the public via an 'emergency' PSA gathering on the castle grounds. I didn't typically concern myself with public affairs, I was busy getting my degree in behavioral sleep medicine and had no time for much else but school, but I happened upon the event on my way home. I stopped to watch our benevolent matriarch speak, for she was beautiful to behold and certainly I could be bother to stop for just a moment, but then she stepped out to offer her thanks for the warm welcome, and to promise her effort towards a peaceful nation from then on. By then I was smitten.
"Oof!" I flailed my limbs out helplessly as an eraser collided with my nose. Several other nearby students were in various degrees of recovery after the assault. Hoofensnapple did not like being interrupted or having to repeat himself. As a result he developed a tactic to keep his student's attention on himself, namely flinging an eraser at them with precision magic. Eventually he developed the skill so much he could fling up to 5 erasers at 5 different students in various locations, and he never missed. So as 5 erasers floated back I looked at him and grinned sheepishly.
"Quite frankly Mr.Chase I'm surprised, I've never had to pelt you with an eraser before. Get it together and pay attention ." I swallowed hard and let out a 'yes, sir' and he went back to teaching, and I went back to staring daggers at Pander.
After class I wandered off, knowing that Pander would eventually catch up with me.
"Yo! What were you thinking?" I heard a harsh wisper, his voice, in my ear.
"No, what are you thinking, calling me out like that in the middle of class. That was not cool."
"Yeah, yeah." He waved it off. "I fixed that, whatever. Point is you're the one crushing on a Princess."
"So what if I am, can't a stallion dream?" I said, annoyance clear in my tone.
"Nooo I don't mean it like that , in fact I commend you, shoot for the stars bro, or in this case the moon," He snickered at his pun. "actually, "He paused to think for a bit, "Now that I think about it this is like a challenge."
I paled at his words. Pander and challenges did mix well, but I'm pretty positive even a master of providing happiness like Pander could pull something like this off.
"Hey now, before you get ahead of yourself, this is totally not a challenge of any sort. I mean I know your special talent is, ahem," I gestured sarcastically in the air reciting his own words, "Procurement of goods and services, but I don't think this is something you can help me with." I begged him with my eyes to just let it go, but he would not.
"But I can totally hook you up!"
"I know you've made matches successfully before, but honestly; she's a Princess."
We had meandered from the main entrance to a point between our dorm and the main building, around us were the central gardens and nearby were a few benches, I headed over to one and plopped down onto it. Pander sat next to me, a sort of defeated look about him. It was in how he sat, and how his head hung, but I knew better. He was far from done, he was just plotting.
"Dude you gotta give it a chance! Don't you want to at least meet her?" He said suddenly.
"Well... Well yeah, that wouldn't be too bad I suppose."
"Great! I already have a plan!"
I paced in front of the doors of Luna's night court. Pander knew that she held night court and that it was a less than popular event. In fact he discovered that Luna had perhaps a total of 100 petitioners in her last year of service.
"Dude the place is gonna be empty and she's gonna be eager to talk to anypony . Just head in about an hour after it starts and she'll be bored out of her mind." He reasoned. It seemed pretty sound, except for one detail that popped into my mind.
"Hey? I can't just go in and make idle talk, I gotta be there on official business. I need to have something to petition her for..." I trailed off, nothing fresh coming to mind.
"You telling me that a sleep doctor , named 'Dream Chaser', has nothing to petition the Princess of the night and dreams about?" He looked at me critically. He had a point, and suddenly this seemed extremely easy. After all I was going to petition the Canterlot U board to add a sleep lab. My thoughts began to blur as the implications and possibilities came together.
So now here I was, pacing while the guards stared me down.
"You looking kinda shifty buddy, you have business here?" One guard stepped away from the wall to confront me.
"N-no, I mean! Yes, I'm here to petition the Princess." I stuttered. The guards exchanged looks, but relaxed. "Well go on in then, and no funny business."
"Yes, sir." I gulped as I passed through the oaken doors. Once through I walked towards the central podium.
Author's Note
Twilight's cutie mark is a PITA.
One & One-Thousand Daily Pony Challenge Entries
10/19/13- Desolate World & More Dashie
Twilight Sparkle's eyes shot open in the presence of an unwarranted sound. She rose to her shaky hooves and cast her eyes about the cave wearily. She knew better than to take refuge in an unexplored cave, but night was falling quickly and getting caught out in the Everfree in the middle of the night was a death wish. So she took refuge in the cave, and was now certain that she was about to regret that decision.
She adjusted her stance, spreading her legs for balance, defensively pointing her lit horn down the dark aperture of poor choice of shelter.
"Come out! I know there's somepony here!" She shouted down the passage. Some scampering could be heard and a shadow danced along the wall. A pale gold face of a mare, framed by a pink mane peered around the corner.
"S-sorry t-to bother y-y-you." She stuttered, Twilight could barely understand her. "I-I-I'll just go now." The mare slowly walked backwards towards the entrance of the cave.
"Wait!" Twilight shouted after the mare and then quickly closed the distance between them with a flourish of teleportation magic. The slight mare quickly backed away from Twilight, heading deeper into the cave. "You're a pony!" Twilight pointed a hoof towards the newcomer. She said nothing, but continued backing away from Twilight, until there was no more space between her and the wall. Cowering between Twilight and the wall the mare began to sob. Twilight backed up a few steps and began to apologize profusely.
"Oh no! I didn't mean to scare you! I'm so sorry! Please, stop crying." Twilight then impulsively hugged the mare. The mare continued to sob, but accepted Twilight embrace, sobbing into her mane.
"I-I-I'm sorrrrry." She fought the sobs that wracked her body. The mare managed to get her crying under control and Twilight released her. "Thank you." "
"Thanks? You don't have to thank me, I can't imagine how aggressive I must have seemed. I'm sorry that I scared you, it's just been so long since I've seen another pony..." Twilight trailed off as her entire body sagged. "I got a little carried away is all. I'm Twilight Sparkle, by the way.
The mare tried to tell Twilight her name, but all she managed to produce was a barely audible squeak. Twilight cocked her head and frowned.
"I didn't quite get that, can you tell me again?" She asked politely, her horn lighting up as she wove a spell.
"My name is Fluttershy." Fluttershy said, her voice amplified by the spell Twilight was casting. Fluttershy's eyes widened and she put a hoof over her mouth and uttered a squeak. Twilight giggled.
"Sorry, let me tweak the spell a bit so only I can hear the amplification." Twilight screwed her eyes in concentration and then relaxed. "There." She turned to Fluttershy. "If you don't mind me saying; you see awful timid to be exploring the Everfree this late at night."
"Oh, well," She whispered, but Twilight's spell let her hear the mare's words completely. "Normally it would be bad for a pony to be in these woods so late at night, but the critters are really gentle once you get to know them. I live here." She gesture to the cave. Twilight's eyes widened.
"Oh no, I'm the intruder. I'm sorry, again. Should I go?" Twilight looked towards the exit.
"N-no, can you stay? If you want to, of course. I don't see many ponies out here." Fluttershy said, a solemn sadness pervading her downcast.
"I don't see many ponies either, I would like to stay."
"M-maybe, we can be f-friends?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight smiled softly.
"I would love to be your friend."
In this universe using all of the elements against her sister killed Celestia and banished Nightmare Moon to the moon. Canonically Celestia groomed the element bearers, ensuring they would find their elements, here there is no Celestia. Perceiving the lack of a ruler as a weakness the gryphons attacked Equestria. The land was destroyed and most ponies have died. When Twilight Sparkle was a little filly the nomadic camp that she and her parents lived in was attacked by dragons and she was captured. She managed to escape, with a dragon egg, but her parents were dead along with the rest of the camp she lived with. She wandered the landscape for almost a year until she came upon the ruins of Canterlot. She found her way into the library and began reading up on magic. While she was practicing a colorful explosion startles her and she unleashes a bout of magic that hatches the dragon egg and blows the library to smithereens.
Several years pass and Twilight continues to survive, living in the castle ruins with Spike. Then one night she hears intruders and a chase ensues that pushes her into the Everfree , where she meets Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.