My First Days in Ponyville

by OrangeRiff

Rating: everyone
Tags: Bon-Bon, Scootaloo, Slice of Life, Lyra, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Character
Length: 3760

Orange Riff had an interesting life so far, traveling around Equstria, but as he wants to find a quiet place to rest for a while, he takes his way to Ponyville...

Orange Riff is a musician who travels the lands of Equestria. He goes from town to town, but eventually becomes tired of big crowds, and decides to go to the town of Ponyville. There he befriends a pony called Lyra Heartstrings, who offers him a room to stay. But there are some dark forces in work below town, that may ruin the peacefull time of our hero...

Published 2014-01-31 00:50:08 UTC
Last updated 2014-02-05 18:18:16 UTC

Prologue - My diary

I’ve meant to start this a few a times now, but I really don’t know how to begin it. Should it be simple, like „Dear Diary,“? ...no, that’s too cliché. „Dear Aunt May,“ ... I think, I actually read that somewhere before.
I know! Let’s go with this one:

Hello and Welcome to the Foolishly Flashy, Crazily Compelling and Mind-blowingly Mysterious

Diaries of Awesomeness!

...or simply put, My Fist Days in Ponyville.

Ok, so far that’s promising. I’ve got the title down, now let’s get to the story.
First of all, I would like to introduce myself: my name is Orange Riff! Never heard of me? No surprise there.
I’m a pegasus pony, born in Cloudsdale to a lovely couple of pegasi. Long story short, I had an average fillyhood, with lots of smiles and tears, ups and downs, ice and creams, and so on.
I loved to listen to music since I was small, so when I got old enough, I decided to make a band with a few friends, and ran off to play for the crowds. Our band was called „The Herd“. Pretty nifty name, isn’t it?
I played the bass, and did some background vocals, but my true talent lied in composing. I literally wrote song after song, and during the process, I got better and better in it.
We would travel from town to town, play for our food and accommodations, and move on the next day. It’s pretty obvious, that the others got tired of it quickly, and after a few months of running around, they decided to leave the band, and return to Cloudsdale to find something else to do.
But not me.
I loved this kind of life! Every few days I got to see a new town, with new faces, new places to discover, but once I was on my own it wasn’t that easy to get by. I still could play the bass, but with no other instruments and no particular singing voice hiding in my throat, I was doomed to the same fate of giving up, as the rest, who left to home before me.
And that’s how I started working.
It was a good choice all in all: I worked for my food and bed, day after day; saved enough for train tickets; and I was still playing my bass in my remaining free time.
I’d usually do cleaning jobs, would help with repair stuff, or refurbish rooms and houses, run simple errands, or do some dishwashing at a local restaurant. I even worked on a rock farm at some point.
One day, while I was out shopping for an elderly couple, a dusty blue feather flew by me, carried by a gentle breeze. As I was watching it drift away, I realised, I was just like that feather, driven forward by an unseen flow towards an unknown destination, powered by the will of my music trying to live on. I felt an itchy feeling in my flank, and when I looked my face froze into a smile.
My cutie mark has finally appeared!
It looked just like the dusty blue feather, with a white treble clef on top.
I was so overjoyed, I don’t even remember running into the store, grabbing the stuff I needed, rushing back to the old couple’s house, and giving them their things. The only thing on my mind was my bass waiting for me in the room they lent to me for helping out. I played on it until I fell asleep.
A few weeks later I arrived in Manehattan, where I found work at the Bridleway theatre district, as a prop guys assistant. One day when I was helping out with cleaning up behind the stage, I overheard the composer for the next play, as he was speaking to himself anxiously about not knowing how to finish some of the musical pieces. I went over to him and asked if I could help out in some way. He looked at me, and after a short amount of thinking said „why not“.
We worked hard for two weeks, and we managed to finish all of the songs in time. I learned a huge amount of things about professional composing during those fourteen days.
In the end the composer even asked me to be his trainee, but I had to turn down his generous offer, as I knew it was time for me to move on.
After a while I winded up in Dodge Junction, where I worked at a local cherry factory. It was there, I heard someone gossip about Ponyville.
Around that time, I was starting to get enough of crowded cities, like Manehatten, Fillydelphia or Baltimare, so I decided I would pay a visit, to the supposedly quiet and friendly small town of Ponyville.
And this is where the story begins...

Author's Note

[edit, 2014.02.05]
Ran a spellcheck on it, corrected a few things.
If there are any grammatical issues, please let me know!

Day 1

Day 1

My train was running a few minutes late, but there were no complaining ponies, as I was the only passenger, besides a quiet couple, who were coming from a farm along the tracks, so they can take the train from Ponyville to Canterlot.
At some point even I was considering taking that other train, as it was two days before the Summer Sun Celebrations, held in Canterlot, and this was the first year that 3 princesses, one coronated not so long ago, were going to attend. It sounded like a great party!
But I didn’t have to think for long, as my growling stomach remembered me, that I didn’t have the money for the ticket. So, even though I’ve never been to the city of the Princesses, this trip had to wait for some other time.
The train was running by some beautiful scenery: not so long ago we passed a huge cannon, with a small river running in the depths, now we were dashing forward next to a huge forest, called the Everfree Forest, which was rumored to be an interesting place.
It was said to be a self-sufficient art of nature, that had no need for anypony to maintain it. The plants were supposedly growing by themselves, and in the shadows and the bushes, mythical creatures waited for the unprepared bypassers. Sounds creepy, doesn’t it? A forest growing by itself? Yeah, right. As if that was possible.
From there, it didn’t take much time for the train to arrive to the Ponyville Train Station, which was a cute little cottage by the tracks. I almost missed getting off.
It was located on the brim of town with a two-storied house standing next to it, and a path leading to town that started between the two buildings. If I looked along the path I could tell, it would only take a few minutes to get into town.
I grabbed my stuff and started walking. It wasn’t heavy, as there weren’t much things in my luggage: I had my bass on my left side, and a small amount of food, a few bits and two scarfs I took from home, in a saddlebag on my right, to balance out the weight of my instrument of choice. At the time we left with the boys, it looked like a good idea to bring some warm clothes, but during my long trip, it turned out they were only here to remind me of Cloudsdale.
I never once thought about returning home. It would have been awkward to face my parents after I left without saying a word, but from time to time I sent a letter or two home, so they would know I’m fine. I never received a response, but it may be because I never stayed in one place for too long.
As I walked on the path, I passed by more and more houses, and eventually I arrived at a square, which was the center of town. There was a huge building in front of me, the Town Hall, some shops to the left, and a bunch of houses to the right.
First I went to see the shops, to find a job for the time I was planning to stay, as I had almost no money left in my bag. It turned out, none of them needed my assistance, so I moved on to look at some other places.
I walked around town for what it felt like hours, going from store to store, but after almost getting ran over by an orange furred filly on a roller-like thing, I finally found the place I was looking for.
It was a store by the name Quills and Sofas.
The owner was a stallion with light-brown fur, and darker brown mane, called Davenport, who offered a job to me. It wasn’t a hard or unusual one; I had to clean up the shop twice a day: once before opening it in the morning, and once after closing hour. Also, I was to help out the ponies at the moving company, when some big orders came in.
After we agreed on the details I once again found myself walking on the streets, but this time I was looking for a place to stay at.
I heard about a huge apple orchard on the outskirts of town, so I thought about asking the family there, if they had a room to spare, but first I wanted to know more about this place, so I went to find the library.
It didn’t take long to find the Golden Oak Library, as it was a huge and amazing building, built inside an oak tree. Sadly, I wasn’t able to go inside, as on the front door I found a notice about it being closed, due to the staff being out of town.
I sat down for a little, to rest for a few minutes, and eat the last nybbles of my food.
It was then, that a mint-green colored mare came up to me. Her name was Lyra Heartstrings, and turned out to be a fellow musician, a singer, to be exact.
„Hello there! My name is Lyra Heartstrings. Are you new to town?“
She looked very cute with her short cyan mane and bright sunglow eyes, so I kind of got lost in the moment while I stared at her.
„What now? Cat got your tongue?“ she asked jokingly.
I shook my head and introduced myself, as a traveling musician.
„Wow, that’s great! I’m also into music. What kind of bands do you listen to?“
We talked for a while about her and the town. She told me about the residents, like the new princess, Princess Twilight Sparkle, who was living in the library next to us. In exchange I told her about myself and my journey around the different lands of Equestria. While talking, we went for a walk, and she showed me the important places. I also asked her about where I could stay at, and she suggested I could go to her place, as she had a free room in the attic. I happily accepted her offer, and as the sun was starting to set, we decided to go straight there.
Once we arrived, she showed me to my room. It wasn’t anything big, or luxurious, but I wasn’t used to that either. It had a small window, that looked at the street. There was a bed, a table, and chest near the corner,with a standing mirror next to it. The walls weren’t painted, so I could see the raw wood the house was built of.
As I was tired from the long train trip, we decided to meet in the morning to talk about the details of me renting the room. She also mentioned, that there was another mare living with her, called Bon-Bon, but she wasn’t home at the moment, so most probably we will had to meet over breakfast. We said good night and I went straight to bed after setting my things down in the end of the bed.
At the time little did I know about the chaos that was waiting for us the next day.

Author's Note

[edit, 2014.02.05]
Ran a spellcheck. Corrected a few things.
If there are any grammatical errors, please, let me know!

Day 2

Day 2

I was woken by the alarm clock at 8 o’clock, in the morning. I was planning on going for a longer walk to see the surroundings of the town, as Davenport told me, the store won’t be open today. He was planning on going to the Summer Sun Celebration with some friends.
I set off the alarm, got out of bed, and walked to the small window on the northern side of the room.
I looked at the sky for a few minutes, because I felt, that something was off with it, I just couldn’t figure out what exactly.
I turned away and went downstairs to have breakfast, and to speak a few words with my delightful host. As I set hoof in the kitchen I noticed an unfamiliar mare staring outside at the sky.
I greeted her, and asked if she was the pony called Bon-Bon, who Lyra mentioned to me.
“Huh? Yes... Well, actually, my name is Sweetie Drops, but everyone calls me Bon-Bon. You must be our new tenant.“
I nod in response, and asked if she spoke to Lyra about my moving in.
“Yes, she mentioned something among the lines of finding a nice-looking colt wandering around town, searching for shelter, but if you’re looking for Lyra, I have to disappoint you. She already left for Canterlot, early in the morning.“
As she spoke, she still had her eyes glued at the sky, so I decided to see for myself what she was so fixated on.
I stepped up to the window next to Bon-Bon, and as I laid eyes on the anomaly in front of my eyes, my first thoughts were, that I was still dreaming.
The Sun and the Moon were both sitting on the sky, as the usual cerulean color got switched with a transition of colors, ranged from blue, through violet, into black. While the sunny side was stained with puffs of dark clouds, the darkness was spotted with the bright shining stars of the night sky.
I rushed to the front door and stepped outside, so I could see more clearly, how the two most influential celestial bodies decided to share their domain.
I wasn’t the only one watching. There were many other ponies on the streets, most of them quietly watching on, while others gossiped about their theories involving this unusual phenomenon.
Some of them were thinking, this was just a show put up by the royal sisters, but others were afraid, that maybe this signaled the return of Nightmare Moon once again, just like what happened last year.
That was when the first screams hit my ears.
They came from down the street, not so far from where I was standing. I looked in the direction they came from, like many others did, but I couldn’t see who started screaming, or what happened.
A few ponies trot off to see if they could be of any help, but only seconds later, they came running back, with long, black, tentacle-like things pursuing them.
They looked like vines of some plant, with sharp thorns all over them, and with the speed of a stud.
As everypony saw what was coming, they started to run in the opposite direction. I tried to get back in the house, but I got swept away by them.
We ran only for a minute or two, as the same kind of dark vines erupted from underneath the fleeing crowd, blocking the way and tangling up everypony they caught.
The ponies, with no chance to get past the wall of thorns ahead or behind them, rushed into the nearest houses, to the surprise of the unsuspecting families inside, and quickly locked the doors behind them.
I decided to run through a nearby alley, between two houses, and thanks to my great luck, no weeds decided to follow me.
As I got out on a parallel street, I looked around for a place to hide. I saw an open window on the second floor of a nearby house, and decided to go for it.
I looked up at the sky and saw a blue pegasus pony with rainbow colored main fighting the dark clouds I saw earlier, only now they were armed with the same spikes as the weeds, and shooting lightning on anything that went near them.
With these clouds around flying up to the window looked more dangerous, but as I saw no other options, I went for a try.
As I took of with full speed towards the building, I saw from the corner of my left eye, that the little orange filly, who almost ran me over yesterday got trapped by one of the weeds. I looked around for a makeshift weapon, and saw a small spud, in the front garden of a house.
I made quick turn to the left, ducked down to grab the tool, and rushed to the aid of the filly.
I went in with speed high enough, that the slash I sent at the vine managed to tear it off, but as the spud also broke, I no longer had a weapon.
I grabbed the filly and bolted for the window with a bunch of weeds in our tail.
I don’t know who was looking after us, but we managed to get inside, and lock the window.
We were safe, inside the bedroom of a stranger.
This stranger was most probably a filly, not much older than the little orange speedster, covering in fear under the bed, as the walls were decorated with a lot of posters of pony musicians, and TV shows, like My Little Human.
I told the little one that she can come out now, but she only shook her head, and stayed put in her safe place. I then told her that I’ll be back soon, and went out of the room to look around, and to see if anypony was home.
It turned out, that the two of us were the only ponies in the house. I found a letter of invitation from most probably a relative of the residents, so it seems they went for a visit. Lucky bastards.
I also found out, that their fridge was stacked with food, so I decided to make up for the missed breakfast, and made some sandwiches for myself and the filly.
I took the food upstairs only to find, that she came out from under the bed, and climbed up on top of it, to fall fast asleep, probably because of the shock.
I put her plate down on the small drawer next to the bed, and sat down by the window to watch the street front for any sign trouble.
I must say I was never really good at keeping watch.
I fell asleep as well, and when I came to the clock on the wall was telling me, it was 5 in the afternoon. While I was asleep the filly must have woken up, as her food was gone, and she was curled up, sleeping in my lap, while using one of my wings as a blanket. I couldn’t help but smile at how adorable she was, snoozing quietly with no care for the world. I just sat there, watching over her dream, for at least another hour, as I didn’t want to wake her.
When she finally came to my body was hurting all over, as I wasn’t allowed to move.
She looked up at me, and in a few seconds went from orange to deep red, as a ripe apple.
She rushed out of the room and when she came back, her first words were, that she’s going to kick my butt, if I tell about this, to anypony.
I agreed of course, and we started to talk.
She introduced herself as Scootaloo, and told me about her adventures with her friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, a club of young fillies who were searching for their talents.
I also told her about my adventures around Equestria, and how I ended up here, in Ponyville.
We were talking for so long we didn’t even realise that the sky outside returned to normal, and in fact it was night time already. She was the one, who noticed, the light coming into the room was different than before.
We looked out the window only to find, that the Sun was gone from the sky, and that the dark weeds have also vanished from the streets. There was no sign of the spiked clouds either.
I opened the window and flew a quick round outside to see if the coast was really clear, then waved to Scootaloo to follow me. It was then I learned about her being unable to fly.
I apologized, she said it was okay, and we didn’t mention it afterwards.
I escorted her home, which turned out to be really close to Quills & Sofas, and after saying goodbye, I went back to Lyra’s and Bon-Bon’s place.
Lyra was still at Canterlot, so I had a long talk with her roommate, about what happened.
It turned out, that the hostile fauna came from the Everfree Forest, and as quickly they appeared, they were gone in the same manner. Those who saw, told everypony that they were turned into dust by some rainbow colored waves.
Thankfully, only a hooffull of ponies were injured during the events, and the damage to the town wasn’t too severe. It took only a few days to repair everything.
The phenomenon involving the Sun and the Moon was later published in the newspapers. It was explained, as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were abducted by the dark plants, the two celestial bodies were thrown out of cycle with nopony to guide them on their route. But with the weeds gone, the two princesses returned and restored order.
And life went on like usual...

Author's Note

[note] I tried to find out who to reference with My Little Human, as it is mentioned in the text, but as I couldn't find the data, I just decided to write this here.