In Sun's Light

Saturday

Canterlot

Prince William Orville Wisp awoke to a rather shaky sun. Nopony was around yet, so he took a moment to chuckle at his handiwork. Then, he got up and put on his standard black bow tie. As he walked out, he was greeted by maids passing by. Polite as ever, he wished them good morning as he walked by. He was walking down the halls when Prince Blueblood met him.

“Will, we’re having a royal meeting. They sent me to find you. It’s nice to see you awake before noon this morning.” Blueblood and Will had a long standing sort of rivalry.

“Mind the discolored tiles, cake face.” This visibly struck a chord in Blueblood’s ego. His chin went up, and his voice and expression were indignant as he walked into the throne room.

“It wasn’t my fault a psychotic chintzy fasionista liked me.”

“Mind what you say.” Twilight said on one end of the room. “She’s my friend. Psychotic, maybe. Fasionista, definitely. But really, Rarity isn’t chintzy at all. She’s very generous.”

Luna halted the argument before it could get any worse. “I have called you all here because Equestria needs a figurehead. I can control the sun and moon, but that will make me tired, and to keep morale up, we will need a leader that the ponies like. Any volunteers?” Everypony looked at Cadence.

“What?” she asked, getting defensive.

“Well, honey, everypony knows us from our wedding.” Shining Armor pointed out. “But, everypony will expect us to rule together, and we still have the Crystal Empire to worry about. Plus, I’m leading an investigation to find out what became of Celestia.”

“Who are you taking with you?” Luna asked.

“Graphite Sketch.” This earned him skeptical looks. “What? He’s an avid dimension traveler. And also, he wants to find out who snuck past him so he can put his head through some drywall.” Will kept a straight face, and made a mental note not to let that happen. He also made a mental note not to let Shining Armor find Celestia alive.

“Very well.” Luna said. “Be careful.”

This was Will’s chance. “I’ll volunteer for leader.” He said, and was shocked to hear another voice say the exact same thing. He looked in the right direction and locked eyes with Twilight Sparkle.

“Oh, Princess Sparkle, you don’t want to do that.”

“Yes I do. This is the ultimate chance to bring what I have learned about being a princess to the test. I think we should have a country-wide election.”

“That is-“

“A wonderful idea!” Luna exclaimed. “That’ll distract this nation from the loss of its ruler! An election it is!”

“Oh… Alright...” Will said, slightly disappointed. But he would win. And if he didn’t win, it would be easy to get rid of Princess Sparkle as well.

Earth

Gavin had been awake a while. It was now nearly noon. And the only thing he could think of was the sounds from the previous night. What had those been? He was curious, if not a little creeped out. He wanted to know what had scared him out of the woods, because he felt stupid for being scared of something he couldn’t even identify. And it was a Saturday. It was time for him to find out what was going on.

So he packed a bag with a notebook and some pencils for taking notes and sketches, a first aid kit, and a nature valley granola bar. Then, he pocketed a knife, just in case, and set out. It was hard to find the exact spot. He remembered it was fifteen or twenty feet from a gopher hole. He found that, and used it as the central point for a thirty foot search radius. More or less. He was just estimating. Finally, after a while of searching and not finding anything, he sat down and opened his granola bar.

* * *

Something was making a lot of noise. The filly could hear it walk past a few times, and she couldn’t even run away! Things were looking so hopeless. She was so hungry it was taking all of her energy to keep her awake. And now things were walking around looking for her. She couldn’t even tell what they were! All of a sudden, she heard a rustle and smelled a mixture of honey and oats. It smelled so good! But it also surprised her into making a noise.

“Huh?” That caused the sound of something big moving, possibly falling.

“Ow!” a familiar voice said. “Who’s there?” She stayed quiet, scared, but her stomach made a loud growl in response to the smell. Oh no…

Then something was parting the branches above her, which pulled her into a patch of thorns. This was too much, she started crying again as she looked up at the same two legged creature from yesterday.

* * *

Gavin parted the branches to find a small white creature with pink hair looking up at him, teary eyed. He had to admit, it was pretty cute. Its stomach growled again as it eyed his nature valley bar.

“Hungry?” to his surprise, the creature nodded. Oh, who was he kidding? This wasn’t some inexplicable aberration. The ice cream colors, the horn and wings, the cartoonish look. There was no denying the iconic appearance of a G4 pony. This was weird. He handed over his granola bar and then pulled out his knife.

“Please don’t hurt me!” the pony suddenly squeaked, cringing at the sight of the knife. That was when it hit Gavin. Maybe she (He could tell by the voice) wasn’t human, but she was still just a scared, lost little kid. He put on the most comforting voice he could.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just cutting you out of the branches. Hold still.” She obediently held still, letting him free her. By the time he cut her out, her mane was tangled with branches. He looked her over. She was covered in dirt and was scratched up pretty bad. She also looked like she was starving. This was not just a living thing, but something that was self aware, sentient; something that knew it needed his help. He couldn’t leave her here like this.

“Let’s take you to my house and get you cleaned up.” At first, she seemed scared by this, but managed a sheepish nod.

* * *

The water was hot, but it felt good. The filly hadn’t been warm like this for days. She was completely relaxed as the two legged creature detangled her mane and scrubbed the dirt off of her. Eventually, the water was starting to get cold, but at this point the creature seemed to be letting her enjoy herself.

“Thank you.” She said as she climbed out. She was instantly covered in towel, being dried off.

“No problem. So do you have a home? Are you lost?”

“Yeah… I’m lost…”

“Umm… Chances are it’ll be hard to bring you back, unless you know some magic or something.”

“I don’t.”

“What’s your name?”

“I- I can’t remember.” She was starting to tear up again. This whole memory loss thing was really stressful.

“Hey, don’t cry. We’ll figure this out. And my name is Gavin.” He picked her up and wrapped her in a blanket before setting her on a pillow on the couch. She was warm and comfortable for the first time she could remember. She dozed, and finally went to sleep.

Gavin flipped open his laptop, plugged in his headphones, and booted up Netflix. It was time to do research.