Chapter 1: As we Contemplate
The day was warm; warm like a small fire inside a house. It was comforting and almost enticing. The air itself matched the wonderful feeling given off by the sun, complementing it as if they were simple ponies comforting each other. It was as if the weather was ready to embrace the awaiting ponies, ready for their joy to fill a gap some sort; a missing piece to the puzzle of happiness that only the weather, and the ponies themselves could combine to complete it. All the while, the leaves hanging on to their savoir trees were swaying in the mild breeze. One that was not too cold, but just enough to rejuvenate any tired pony. But the leaves were not the only thing dancing to the breeze; the grass swayed gently as it danced to the wind’s rhythm, creating an ensemble with the flowers, which was so wonderful and elegant.
This was a scene only complete by the graceful mares, stallions, fillies and colts absorbing it’s gracious embrace. Some were simply lying under the suns protection, like a solar panels absorbing its emotional power. While others were running and playing in the soft grass, and enjoying the moment of beauty, and letting themselves be engulfed by it’s enticing atmosphere.
But one pony in particular, was not part of the orchestral content. This pony was singled out like spot on a white shirt, reluctant to conform as others did. She sat deeply alone inside the shade. But not the shade of a tree, instead the shade of her own house. It was as if the pony was shielding herself from the sun like a frightened mouse. She wasn’t sad, nor was she happy; a feeling of neutral distaste was more accurate. Her long main not blowing in the breeze like all the other ponies, as there was no breeze for her to-...
The sharp feather point lifted of the slightly discoloured paper, leaving a tiny drop of ink in it’s place. The feather was glistening and glowing in the blue-ish magic that was suspending it in the air. But without warning the feather was tossed violently to the ground. As it impacted against the floor, it created a slightly echoed *clank* which resonated off the walls of the small room.
The only other sound that could be heard was a very light breathing, it was not loud enough to be heard from a longer distance, but when closer to it’s source, the sigh of annoyance was clear. The sound was in fact coming from a young mare; who was sitting awkwardly on a metal stool. Her front hooves were frustratingly quivering on the accompanying wooden desk. Contrary to the metal stool, the desk was not in great condition; the wood was scratched, and in some areas it was charred and left as black as charcoal. On the desk were an assortment of metal parts; like gears, hinges and other mechanical necessities. They themselves were not in the best condition; laced with grease and oil, but it was understandable for parts, such as those to be in that condition.
The motionless objects perched on top of the desk were disturbed by an unpredictably loud groan coming from the displeased mare. She also let out an involuntary slam, which collided loudly with desk, forcing its carefully placed contents to tumble over their respective places and fall of the edge of the desk. The falling contents made similar *thump* sound as multiple items smacked into the ground and filled the small room with the sound of their collision. Each of them bounced and spun slightly as the force was not yet exerted from the initial collision. As the echo started to die down, so did the kinetic energy of the objects, and so they slowly withered and spun until they let out a final *tink*
With the echoes of sound just about dying down, the approaching silence was interrupted, “Oh, this is useless, it sounds terrible!” the mare shouted to her self in a mildly high pitched, croaky voice. Her eyes were filled with disgust as she stared at the paper. “I’ll never be able to wright a good story, I don’t even know anything about this place!” she paused to take a small breath, “I mean, how is anypony supposed to write about this place if we haven’t even been taught about it that much” The shouting once again created an angry echo in the room, and the already dark atmosphere became
more punishing.
With a slow, shaking hoof, the mare leaned to toward the side of the metal stool, tilting her body until she slid off the edge. Her hooves hit the cold floor, and she began to sturdy herself. She gently walked over to the side of the room, with a light trot emanating from her hooves. Here she stood looking over a small bed, which had a single pillow that was discoloured from the original white it was intended to be, and an equally worn bed cover. On the cover lay a small tattered dark green saddle pack.
It was made of strong cotton and some form rope material. Even though the bad looked as if it a tough reckless object it was, aswell, worn out by excessive use. As were a lot of things in the room.
Inside the bag where a large assortment of files and papered clumped together like an anaconda squeezing its prey. Within the vast assortment of papers and books, there was a single folder entitled “Equestria” the title on the folder was written out in ink, and looked as if it were kept in good condition. the folder was highlighted by an encasing blue magic, which began sliding it out of the bag. Now that it was out on it’s own, the folder did not look too filled, there were maybe around 10 - 13 sheets of paper inside of it.
The folder of papers was trailed away from the bag, as the annoyed, but quiet mare trotted back to the wooden desk she was previously sat at. She slammed the folder against the desk as she herself reluctantly sat down. The folder opened in an awe of magic, and the pages began to flip one by one. The flipping stopped as one pages in particular caught the ponies searching eye. The pages had the words “Topic 3: Equestria’s landscape and society (unit 1)” inscribed on them. The mare, quite chuffed with her finding smiled slightly as she unpinned the sheet of paper from the hinges of the folder.
Once removed, the binding pieces of metal in the folder snapped together, and was placed on the side of the desk. in front of her, she has laid out the newly found sheet on the left side of the previous piece of paper she was writing on. She thought to herself, Maybe there is something useful in this I can use, or else I won’t be able to get this thing done. She scanned the paper with cautious eyes, looking to pick out any useful information. As she scanned vigorously through the paragraphs, something caught her eye; a subsection near the bottom of the page called “A description of the landscape” Ah! there we go, this might be something actually useful, she thought to herself expectantly. The paragraph contained notes about Equestria’s rocky landscapes, and its gaping valleys. The notes were not complete by any standard, but is was enough to help her.
She took the other piece of paper and decided to flip it over and start again on the other side. She started out by writing out the title on the top of the paper. the mares horn started to glow as she began to pick up the feather from the floor and dip it in the black ink. She then proceeded to write “Assignment 5: Creative Writing, Topic: Equestria” her writing was quite neat and and well presented, but that was a common thing among unicorns.
The second thing she thought to do, was to plan out the first paragraph of the story in her mind before going guns a’ blazing with her pen. She sat there in deep thought, with a tilted head resting on her sturdy hoof. Minutes passed as only a few idea boiled in her mind. A although a good portion of her time was spent stopping herself from dozing off. It wasn't particularly late, and she had not been awake anymore than a usual pony would, but occasionally she would have moments where she felt compelled to fall asleep.
She had been talking to the doctor about it, and all throughout her life, the doctor has told her and her parents that there really is not anything they do about it. It wasn’t exactly a terrible misfortune have bestowed upon her, but it did frustrate the mare when she would doze of in the middle of classes.
As her previously content expression gradually faded away, so did her motivation. The grin of happiness and optimism turned into a tired, defeated frown, as if she had waved the white flag of surrender.
Sitting there, as motionless as a rock, the young mare’s eyes once again began to involuntarily close, but were perked back up again. It only took a few minutes for her to realise that she had lost the battle, and gave up, allowing her eyelids to force himself shut.
The feeling was pleasant and satisfying, it was a great relief to relax her eyes drift off, but the feeling of pleasure was not alone, as it were accompanied by the reminder that, she did not have much time left to complete this paper, only 3 days in fact.
But those thoughts drifted away, like a paper boat in the ocean. At this moment she could not care less about the paper, or the assignment. I’ll finished it later.. She thought to herself in a comforting tone. She was about to continue her pointless thought when she began to blank out, and go into a state of deep sleep.
As her mind switched off, so did the control of her body; all 4 limbs began to turn limp and no longer filled with the frustration, as if it flew away like a bird. Her entire body started precariously leaning over her front hooves as her head slammed against the desk, making another echoed *Thump*
The room once again fell into complete silence, not a single sound was heard in the room, or outside of it. The sleeping mare felt the last tiny ounce of consciousness disappear. Nopony had heard any of the loud thumps coming from her room, which was unusual as the ponies would normally come knocking on the door complaining about the inconsiderate noise. But it seemed that this time, nopony cared, which was a good thing, as an annoyed pony complaining about noise would have surely pushed the frustrated mare over her breaking point.
Hours passed as the she slept peacefully, in a still, and almost lifeless position. By now it was getting late, so being asleep at this time was not that strange. Only the quiet sound of hoofsteps from outside the door were to break the silence within the room. But were not loud enough disturb the mare in her very deep sleep, which in fact was a common thing for her, so even a siren in her room would not break the silent slumber.
Not so long later, the mares tired, and worn eyelids began to force themselves open, as the pony regained consciousness. With a weak aching hoof, she forced her body to pries itself up, almost to a standing point.
As she pushed herself up, a thought crossed her mind. Wait. why am I on the floor? did I fall of the chair. it spiraled around her thought process as she gained a sturdy balance. But the thought was erased instantly as her heart suddenly skipped a beat. She looked up and blinked a couple of time to confirm she was not hallucinating.
Instead of waking up on her cold floor, she found herself standing on grass, soft, smooth grass accompanied by a gentle breeze. stranger was the fact that she was no longer in her small confining room. As she turned her head slowly to look around, the mares eyes grew larger, while her pupils began shrinking as they adapted to the bright light. Instead of her room, the mare found herself in an open expanse, of green fields, and tall trees.
She again started blinking, and rubbed her tired face, trying comprehend what was going on. She tried taking a deep breath, and closed her eyes for a few seconds, just to test once again, if this was a hallucination. As she slowly opened her eyes, to her surprise nothing had changed; she was still in the same large field, with grass beneath her hooves and a gentle breeze against her face.
Accepting that she was obviously not hallucinating, she tried walking around, and decided to explore her surroundings. Each step she took forward was step of complete alienation. This was definitely something she was not used to. Although some how, this place felt, somewhat familiar, almost like a sense a deja vu. She decided to ignore the feeling and continue walking
“Hello?” she shouted expectantly, “Anypony, anypony around! Hello?” but nothing, silence. The only answer was her own words rebounding off the valley’s mountains like a boomerang.
But before she could let out a sigh, another strange feeling of deja vu returned to her mind. except this time, instead of pushing away the idea, she decided to examine it. She stop walking and came to hasty holt. She scanned the area around this time, completely, not just just confusingly, instead with an examining careful eye. She could she tall mountains, towering above the clouds, making the smaller hills looks like insects in comparison. She could also that she was in the bottom of a valley, and looking around her she could see other connecting values, all considerably flat like the top of a cake.
But in the distance, something quite odd caught her scrutinizing eye. Wait.. is that a.. a house? She thought to herself with a skepticism. Her eyes started squinting in an effort to see a little more clearly. And in fact it was, and not just one house. but multiple houses, all assembled together in an orderly fashion.
Before the mare could comprehend what she was looking at, though shot into her mind like a bullet W-wait second.. she comprehended, Is.. is this E-E-Equestria? She was stuttering, even in her own mind. But she seemed to be right; the mountains, and the valleys, and even the houses matched up to what she had been taught in class.
The mare was stood, frozen like stone, and bolted to the ground. But.. but how, NO, this isn't possible.. is it? The thought was growing in the front, and the back of her mind.
Although this thought didn’t last long. To her surprised, she could hear something quiet; not the sound of trees or grass, but it made her snap out of her trance of disbelief. The sound started to grow louder, and louder each second. It sounded muffled and distorted, she quickly turned around and checked the surrounding areas, but nothing seemed to be creating the sound. In Fact it did not sound like it even had a source, it just seemed to be coming from inside her head, she kept turning left and right frantically to see if she could find out if it was indeed coming from her head, or from some where around her.
As the noise became less muffled, and the volume started growing, the mares entire body halted, and froze still. It was completely stiff like a wall, and her eyes shared the same stiffness, but her face stuck on expression of shock and confusion as she thought to herself as if she had just had an epiphany; Wait sec.. that sounds like a voice...