Silent Songsby KuairuChaptersTurn the PageCut the KidWish You Were HereStarve the Ego, Feed the SoulTurn the Page"Tea, tea, why did I forget to pack tea?..." Quills said to himself as he trudged rather than trotted to Mayor Mare's Town Hall. The late morning sun always drove spikes of sunshine into Quills's eyes whenever he didn't drink his tea, especially when he had his glasses on. And the last few days of camping on the way to Ponyville has been utter Tartarus, since he forgot to pack tea in moving all his immediate belongings. He arrived shortly afterwards to a light grey mare with a flashy green and yellow dyed striped mane. Quills didn't doubt this was probably some teenage niece or daughter of the Mayor's that was forced to do this job. He also reminded himself to not say anything about how horrible the colors looked on her. Don't say anything, don't say anything about her mane... Quills trotted up to the mare and saw that she was reading a magazine, one that he knew was followed in hot demand by the "cool" teenagers, according to his neighbor back in Manehatten, who also had a daughter that was the kind of foal he made sure to warn Ritz about. Please, oh please, don't have an indifferent voice... "Hello?" Quills tilted his head in the mare's direction. Said mare gave him a tentative glance before resuming her magazine. "I was supposed to meet Mayor Mare at noon today, which is only ten minutes away?" "Like, I dunno. Just wait until she calls you up or something," the mare replied. Excellent. She is one of those teens. Why can I never meet a smart one from a top-tier high school or at least a good one from college?... "Mr. Escrito Pluma? You may come into my office now." A loud intercom was heard in the room. "Escri...wait! You're Quills!?" the mare suddenly exclaimed. "Yes, that’s my name. Is there a problem?" Quills started trotting over to the main door to the office, looking back at the mare with a deadpan look. "Um, uh, no, there isn't! I was just surprised. We read 'To Love a Shadow' in English class a while ago as part of our modern literature unit, and for once, I thought english class was fun!" the mare practically jumped at her desk. "Huh. ‘I made English class fun’. That has to be one of the weirdest compliments I've heard," Quills remarked loudly, before stepping inside the mayor's office, closing the door with a loud thud. Inside, he could see more of the room than last night, since before he could see what little he could by some candlelight. Now though, with the sun shining through the large multi-panel windows (and right at his eyes again), he could see clearly everything there was about the office. The flooring was more deep blue than he had seen last night, and a large insignia showing what looked to be a town seal was stitched into the plush carpet design. At the far end of the room sat Mayor Mare, sipping from a cardboard cup bearing the insignia of some coffee shop that Quills remembered passing. “Would you like some coffee, Quills?” Mayor Mare asked. “No thanks. I don’t really like coffee all that much…” Immediately, the aforementioned drink was spit onto his face, courtesy of one Mayor Mare. “You don’t like coffee?! Are you even pony?! What kind of pony, especially in your line of work, doesn’t like coffee?!” Mayor Mare exclaimed. As a fellow pony of political prowess, she had learned to love the drink as if it were her husband. A husband that never cheated on her, never drank away from her, never used up her money... “I’m a pony that somehow doesn’t scream when burning coffee is spit onto his face, mayor...” Mayor Mare shifted her glasses to look at Quills again, and gasped. She pulled out a drawer from her desk to grab a couple tissues that were there in cases of her allergies acting up. She padded them on the stallion’s face, trying to wipe off the coffee. She winced whenever she saw a spot that was scalded onto Quills’s face. Quills was busy trying to wipe out the coffee stains on his glasses. “I’m so sorry Mr. Quills! I was just...surprised that...well you must understand I…” The stallion put a hoof up to the mayor’s mouth, silencing her. “It’s fine, Mayor, don’t worry,” Quills replied with a grin and a chuckle. “Believe me, I’ve had worse stuff sprayed all over my face.” Awkward silence followed, with the mayor blinking at Quills raising a hoof to the back of his head, a small blush on his grinning cheeks. “Right. Phrasing. Anyways…” Quills put his hoof down. “Did you get the deed?” Mayor Mare shook her head a bit to retain her composure. “oh yes, right...Yes I do.” She slid her hoof into another drawer and pulled out a couple of papers. She handed Quills a quill and some ink, and using his mouth he signed what he needed to complete on the deed. With one final slash confirming his signature, the paper suddenly glowed with a golden aura and floated in the air. As Quills stood back, the paper rose up and in a flash, disappeared. “Unicorn Papyrus. Magically enhanced paper that we use to sign big checks and household deeds. It’s quite expensive to have, you know,” Mayor Mare commented. “I know it is. I use a special kind that I write my final drafts and send to the publishers in Baltimare.” "Ah yes, you are that famous comedy writer from that reader's digest series, right?” "The One and Only!" Quills stood up proud on his hooves, posing in a regal form. The pose didn't last long however, as he slowly tipped over and lost his balance, landing with his muzzle on the floor and his rump in the air, his glasses falling onto the floor in front of him. "Ahck! Well, you get the point..." Mayor Mare gave a light chuckle before saying, "well you do seem to know how to make ponies laugh. On to our next order of business." The mayor shifted in her seat while Quills sat down comfortably again, adjusting his glasses. "I assume you need to have your son enrolled into our local elementary school here?" "You only have one school?" Quills asked. He at least expected two schools for this small town. "Yes, one public schoolhouse at least. I know it's not much to the city schools your son went to, but I assure you the teachers are the most qualified than any others that applied for the positions." "I'm not complaining, Mayor, I'm just surprised. What about high schools?" "Oh, we usually send the few teenagers that live here to Canterlot High, on the morning train." Quills put a hoof to his muzzle in deep thinking. After a minute, he replied, "I guess it saves me the hassle of choosing schools. What do I have to sign?" "Just sign basic information about your son here." The mayor pulled out another paper from her desk (I swear, how does she manage to have everything organized in a desk like that!) and laid it out in front of Quills. Using the same quill from before, he wrote everything the paper asked for, and completed it with his signature. He gave it back to the mayor, who scanned it for a minute, before widening her eyes. "Oh dear. Your son is mute?" Mayor Mare asked. Quills gave out a tentative sigh and slumped. "Yes, he is. It's a bit of a complicated story that I wish to not talk about right now." "It's not the story I'm worried about, Mr. Pluma. I'm worried of how he is going to fit in with his classmates. You realise that we have no special needs or aids in our school system, you see." Quills gave a light chuckle. "Do not worry, mayor. Back in his old school, he was stubborn enough about being in regular classes that they allowed him, even if I tried to convince him otherwise. He didn't have as much a problem back then, I'm sure he won't have any problem now," Quills replied. "Regardless, do you understand the risk that he may struggle with his schoolwork?" "Yes, I do mayor, and I assure you it won't be a major problem." "Well, then I suppose that's all for now. Thank you for coming here to Ponyville, Mr. Pluma. Now if you excuse me, I have to work on some papers sent by Princess Sparkle." Quills quickly stood up and started to trot out when he stopped. "Wait a second, you haven't told me what that pink monstrosity you were talking about last night was!" "Oh dear, I haven't. Well, I'm sorry but these papers take top priority, maybe next time?" Mayor Mare asked. "Fine. It sounded so interesting though..." Quills sighed as he left the door out of the office. "Mr. Pluma?" Quills heard his name called, and turned to see that same assistant mare from before. "Yes?" he replied. "I just want to say sorry for, uh, acting like that from before..." "Think nothing of it. I haven't had my tea yet, we're all a bit irritable once in a while," Quills patted her on the head. "Yeah....hey! Since you're new around here, why don't I give you a tour of the town? I know a few good places where you can get your, uh, tea, I guess." "Ah, that would be wonderful. What about your job though?" "The afternoon assistant is already here, I'm already clocked out, and ready to go when you are." "Phrasing." "Phrase..." the mare widened her eyes. "Act two of To Love a Shadow? You know, for a thirty something like yourself, you have a dirtier mind then some of the boys at my school," she deadpanned. "I'm twenty nine, and I prefer the term, 'sexy imagination', if you will." The mare widened her eyes again. She coughed to herself before speaking in a richer-than-thou voice, "Well I would say that's subjective, my dear Blaze. To what do you think would be the most attractive aspect of any mare?" Quills coughed to himself before speaking in the hooflyn accent he acquired in Manehatten, "Do you want the right answer, or the true one?" "The right answer, for your sake." "You, of course!" "And what of the true one?" "Mare, have you even seen the models these days!?" Both ponies started laughing loudly, reenacting a scene from the story the mare had mentioned. They heard an "ahem" from a white pegasus mare with a blonde mane. "Oh, uh, sorry ma'am. We'll, uh, be on our way then." With a couple trots, the duo quickly exited the building, blushing with embarrassment. Looking around, Quills could see that the town was lively in the middle of the day. An orange earth pony was pulling a cart full of apples while talking to a cyan blue Pegasus flying above her, while a unicorn was talking to a grey Pegasus mare with blue saddlebags on her flanks. All around him, he can see ponies of various colors and even races talking, playing, working, and above all just enjoying the company with each other. In the back of his mind, he noted that this was paradise compared to what happened back in Manehatten. "That offer is still up, if you want to go," he heard the mare next to him say. "I would be delighted to accept it. Let's come back to my house first so I can pick up my son. I'm sure he would also want a tour." Both ponies started walking down the road, Quills still marveling by how bustling the small town of Ponyville could be. Author's Note Please tell me if Quills character is consistent or not. I have a feeling that he is but I don't immediately see anywhere where I could improve him. Once again, Comment and rate! And Favorite too, if you would be so kind! A bit of a hassle to get this one out, but then again, a good portion of the writers on the site like me are going to start focusing on school soon. Ugh. Now I have to meet people again. Up next, our mute Ritz is going to meet his new friends, whether he wants to or not! TTFN Cut the KidIt was all a haze. A blur of colors streaked past Ritz's vision. Suddenly frightened, the colt had yelped out a surprise, causing him to step back and unfortunately trip over himself landing squarely on his back. "Watch where you're goin' with this thing, Scoots, you almost killed somepony!" he heard. "Ah, he woulda been fine. Nothing more than a bruise would have happened if I did hit him," he heard another voice say. "Scootaloo!" "Ritz!" he finally heard a familiar voice. Focusing his eyes, he saw his father standing over him with a worried expression. "Ritz! Are you okay?!" his father asked. Ritz nodded and stood up, shaking his head to get rid of the last few stars in his vision. "Did you hurt anything? Head, neck, your back? Did you accidentally bite your tongue? Did a tooth fall out? HAVE YOUR EARS BEEN RUPTURED?!" Quills screamed at Ritz. His father kept shaking his head, checking for any injuries. Ritz shoved himself away with an audible breath, looking at Quills disdainfully. "Er, sorry for that. I guess it was just a fall..." Ritz raised an eyebrow at Quills "What? I'm your father. I've got to needlessly check for any injury my son has, even if you just bang your hoof on a table. Ritz was not amused. "Excuse me, sir. I just want to, uh, apologize... because I felt really bad for almost, er, 'killing' your son with a HARMLESS SCOOTER." A small orange filly with short but wild violet hair walked up to Quills, yelling the last bit back at two other fillies down the road, one that was white as a marshmallow with a fuchsia mane, the other with a cream coat and a short red mane, with small saddle bags on her flanks. "Oh, nothing to be ashamed about, my dear, at least to me. It's my son who you should apologize to," Quills replied. The orange filly walked behind the stallion up to to Ritz. "Hey there. Sorry for running you over like that. I guess I wasn't really paying attention," the filly apologized. Ritz responded by brushing his hoof down through his hair while smiling. "What's wrong, something wrong with your voice? Gasp, I must've scared your voice out of you!" the filly exasperated. Her eyes grew with worry, and she quickly turned around. "Girls, help! The kid lost his voice!" Quickly, the two other fillies dashed down to where Ritz was, the cream coated one taking out some rope to lasso his legs, pinning him down. Ritz was frantic, with his eyes open in fear and confusion as he looked towards his father. "Mister, can we take him to see if we can help your son? We've been trying to get our doctor cutie marks but my sister won't let us near any 'doctoring' tools," the cream coated filly asked. Quills was at first surprised at how quickly the filly managed to tie his poor son, but soon he smiled in a way that Ritz knew he was going to be betrayed by his father. Again. "Sure, we were just coming back to our house after a young mare had given us a tour of Ponyville. I'm sure he wouldn't mind making some new friends." At this, Ritz gave Quills the stink eye, making eye contact with him. With a "Cutie Mark Crusader doctors!" hurrah by the the trio of fillies, they dragged off their prized colt, all while Ritz never broke eye contact with Quills until they were out of sight, reminding him that he'll never forgive his father for this. Quills laughed it off. "Well, at least now he's in the company of some peers. Hopefully that will get him to be more sociable when school comes." He trotted down the path, giving small greetings to neighbors and passer-bys. After a few minutes he reached his house, and entered. Inside, he saw some boxes and some bags lying around. "Ah, the movers must have come by today to drop off the rest of our belongings," he remarked to himself as he inspected the contents inside some of the boxes for any damage. Seeing none, he quickly got to work removing everything from the boxes and neatly ordering them on where they would go. "Ritz, could you pass me that tape cutter? This box is propped up like a shelf with the flaps out on the side so I'll need you to hold the flaps while I cut them open," Quills asked. No response. "Ritz, are you there?" Quills looked out from the box to see that his son wasn't there. At that point, he remembered that he had left his son to the mercy of those three fillies from before. "No matter, I can do it myself," Quills reassured himself. Grabbing the tape-cutter, he proceeded to cut away the tape, before the cutter jammed somewhere near the top. Trying to bring it down, the cutter sliced through the tape like butter, catching Quills off-guard and letting the content of the box fall down on top of him. It swarmed him like an avalanche, and he poked his head out of what seemed to be a pile of books, his glasses nearly fallen off of him. "Huh, I guess that's what that lady back in Manhattan called 'Karma'..." "Alright, first things first. Let's assess the patient!" The trio of fillies had pulled Ritz into a rather nice treehouse, according to him. He would have liked to look around and admire it, if he wasn't tied up and left by his father to suffer what these fillies would do to him. "The patient has lost his voice in a preventable accident involving reckless driving of a scooter," the white filly reported. "Hey, I said I was sorry!" the orange filly retorted. "...do we have any way we can test the patient to see how he has lost his voice?" the cream coated filly asked. "I say let's open his mouth to check his tongue!" Wielding a sizable pair of tongs taken from the saddlebags, the orange coated filly marched up to Ritz and opened his muzzle, using the tongs to grab his tongue and pulled it out as much as she could. Ritz hissed in pain. He wanted to scream, but as he couldn't he settled on making his father scream later. "Nope, his tongue's fine. What else can we try?" The filly let go of the tongs, leaving Ritz to reel back his tongue. He made an effort to snap his jaw at the filly to scare her away. "Watch it, he's fiesty!" "We could try to check his throat or stomach, see if there's anything wrong with his diaphragm." "Dia-what?" "Check his stomach to see if anything is blocking him from speaking!" the white filly exasperated. "Oh, so you mean make him throw up? This should do it!" A sudden pain brought Ritz to full alert, as he suffered a punch to his lower chest. "You punch like a girl, Scootaloo," the cream coated filly remarked. "That's because I am one, Apple Bloom," the orange coated filly named Scootaloo retorted. "Well, you still punch like one. Instead, you need to learn how to kick like one!" Leaning forward on her forelegs, the cream coated filly named Apple Bloom let loose with her back legs, sending Ritz through the air before landing squarely on the opposite wall. This was too much, he thought. Being in a world of pain meant equal pain must be retaliated on his father, but first he needed a way to get away from the fillies. "Girls? What in tarnation are you doing up there? I could hear that kick from back at the farm, Apple Bloom, you better have not tried to buck one of your friends!" Salvation came to Ritz in a form of an adult voice. Now he just needed that adult on his side. Calling up his hidden power, he let loose a secret weapon of children everywhere. "Apple Bloom, what are you-" looking at the opposite wall from where the trio of fillies were standing, a blonde-hair, orange coated mare peeked out from the entrance to the treehouse to see a tied-up colt quietly sobbing, a small hoofprint on his chest giving the reason why. "Apple Bloom! What the heck has gotten into you! Why are beating up young colts!?" The blond-haired mare ran to the young colt, untieing him. Ritz clung onto her foreleg, trying to sob even more to clinch the victory. "Sorry, sis. We were just trying to help him," Apple Bloom replied. "In what twisted world does kicking a colt help anypony?!" the mare retorted. She started to stroke Ritz's mane, trying to calm him down. He smirked in his mind, knowing he had the mare hook, line, and sinker, as his father would say. "We had an accident with Scootaloo's scooter, and now he doesn't say anything! We thought he lost his voice somehow!" Apple Bloom said. "Well did it ever occur to you are that maybe he just doesn't like talking?" the mare asked. "Uh...no....we just wanted to try and see if we could get our doctor cutie marks..." The mare sighed before letting go of Ritz to turn to the three fillies. "How many times to I have to give this speech to you girls. You will get your cutie marks in time, you just have to-" "Uh, dude, you okay?" Scootaloo remarked. The four turned to see Ritz holding his chest in pain. Red flags in the mare's mind flared as she rushed to the colt's aid, brushing away his foreleg holding his chest. A couple prods with her hoof and she sighed in relief. "Don't worry, nothing is really broken, at least not enough," the mare replied. Ritz raised an eyebrow at her. "I'll put it to ya this way: if Apple Bloom was a year older, you would probably have your sternum broken in two." Ritz blinked at her, before he winced at another prod. The mare looked to see a major bruise forming where Apple Bloom had kicked him. "Oof. I'm going to have to get this cleaned up. Come with me, it'll be quick. Granny's made some supper too, if you want to join. And you three!" the mare turned around to the three young fillies. "Come with us. You can have supper too if you want, but don't expect to be unpunished for this!" Helping the colt up, the five went out the exit and climbed down from the tree house. Ritz had often thought about farm life. Living in a cramped city such as Manehatten definitely made you cherish the country life. It's part of the reason why he chose to go to Ponyville, so he and his father could enjoy more in their lives instead of the tight apartment with weird neighbors and bad schools and... "Hellooo. Equestria to colt? Are you there?" Scootaloo's voice brought Ritz back from his city life memories. Focusing his eyes, he found himself at a big table loaded with food. The three fillies sat next to him on the table, while on the opposite side sat an aging green mare with a hair bun, a big red stallion with a long blonde mane, and the mare from before, back at the treehouse. Ritz salivated at the abundance of food. Everywhere on the table were apple fritters, apple pies, apple everything. Another inspection of the room and Ritz realized everything with this family was about apples. "Sorry for the big feast, little feller. This is the day we celebrate the time when I had to drive away the biggest and meanest flock o' fruit bats you'd had ever seen!" the old green mare said, flailing her forelegs in the air. Ritz couldn't help but smile. "So what were you four doing at that tree house? I hope you weren't doing what I think you were doing with these fine girls..." Both the young mare and the stallion coughed loudly. "Uh, granny? Let's not have to talk about that to the kids yet, ya hear? Besides, I caught Apple Bloom giving a swift buck to the colt's chest. It's a nasty bruise you're going to have for a few days though, kid," the mare said. Ritz winced and looked at his chest, seeing a general blue spot around the upper area. "I'd suggest to try and walk easy for those few days. I think the best example would be to stay away from these three, huh?" the mare laughed. "I told you, Applejack, we were only trying to help!" Apple Bloom said. "Help with what, Bloom?" the mare Applejack called Granny asked. "Help with his voice problem or whatever. I think he's just one of those silent types," Applejack responded. Ritz sunk a little into his seat. "Ain't nothing to be afraid, colt. We're all family here. What's your name, by the way?" Granny asked. Ritz sighed before crossing his hoof over his throat, a sign that he used whenever he needed to tell ponies he couldn't speak. "What's wrong, griffin got your tongue?" Scootaloo asked. Ritz gave her a deadpan expression before crossing his throat again. "I knew it, there was something wrong with his throat! Scootaloo, are sure you checked his tongue right?" Apple Bloom asked. "Yeah, but I can check it again if you want," Scootaloo replied. At this, Ritz's eyes shot open, and he stumbled away from the fillies before they could do anything more to him. With a scared look he crossed his throat again, hoping to get the message across before anything else happens to him. "I think he's trying to tell us he can't speak, like he's a mute or something," the red stallion said. Elated, Ritz ran to the stallion, hugging his neck and nodding to everyone, before running back to his seat. "Er, what's a mute?" Scootaloo asked. Ritz repeatedly slammed his head on the table. The door opened, and Ritz stepped inside to a myriad of boxes and a couch he recognized from the apartment. He looked at some of the boxes to see more familiar items from the apartment, and guessed the movers had come in before. He walked a bit wobbly, as a full stomach and a bruise could allow him to walk. He learned much about the Apple family back at supper. Apparently they were the most important farmers in the region, supplying most of Ponyville's food. Their main specialty was apples, which explained the apple food and items in the room. He also learned about Apple Bloom's group of friends. They called themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It consisted of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and the white filly whose name was Sweetie Belle. They were, as Scootaloo said, "on a quest to find their cutie marks". They said that he could join the group too, even though he had his cutie mark already. With a piece of paper and a quill, Ritz told them his name and where he came from, explaining that he and his father were new to Ponyville, as they've just moved in. A mare had given them a tour of the village though, and they know relatively where to go for what they need. Saying goodbye, the mare named Applejack said that he was always welcome to the farm, and would love to welcome Quills too at the party. He wondered what she meant by party when he arrived at the house. "Ritz? Was that you who closed the door?" Ritz heard his father's voice. He followed it to a door that was propped open with a book. He went inside to see a humorous sight. Shelves of books were lined across all the walls, and in the middle lied his father in a tangle of packaging tape, his glasses fallen off to the side. "Thank goodness you're here Ritz. I got in a bit of a tangle trying to unwrap the boxes. Of course I'd find a way to get myself tangled in packaging tape of all things, huh?" Quills laughed. "At least I was able to finish up your room on the opposite hallway." Ritz looked around the room to see various tape peeling off the walls, which would effectively keep Quills in place for only a few more hours. To Quills's horror, Ritz smiled. He smiled in such a way that Quills knew he was going to be betrayed by his son. Again. "Ritmo Porâ, don't you dare walk out that door. Ritz?! RIIIIITZ!" Author's Note Sorry for the late update, wasn't exactly able to get back on the internet when I typed it up. Self-edited, so if you see any mistakes in spelling or grammar that I missed, please tell me. Wish You Were HereMorning. The enemy of Ponykind. It ceases to desist its attacks of sunshine in your eyes and taking away your morning tea. Oh wait, you still haven’t bought any tea. “Ritz!” Quills called. A few minutes later, his son slowly walked to the kitchen where he was. No tables or chairs were anywhere in sight, as Quills was still trying to get everything from the movers and putting all the furniture in place. With haste, he expected to be done by the end of the day. “You want to go out to the cafe, Ritz? I’ve heard they have some good tea, and I know you’re itching for some real food.” Ritz, with half-lidded eyebrows trying to wake up, walked out of the kitchen. One minute later, he came back with his writing journal, a tool that used whenever he wanted to communicate with Quills. After a few minutes of writing with his pencil in the journal, Ritz propped it up for Quills to see, before leaving the room again. In hoofwriting that Quills would have chided his son for if it wasn’t the morning, it read, “You can go. I had eaten ALOT at the Apples yesterday (farmer neighbors, you should meet them!) so I’m not hungry. I’ll be sleeping in, planning something for you waking me up at this hour...” Quills would have gulped, but the early morning didn’t let him feel fear at his son’s incoming revenge, as he closed the journal. He turned on the sink to wash his face, (Thank you for having utilities on, Mayor!) dried it, then adjusted his glasses before walking out into sunshine death rays. Quills would have decided to go back in the household and wait until he was fully awake before he would go out, but the mailbox was shaking. Wondering why an inanimate object had suddenly become animated, blaming trouble-making unicorns along the way, Quills walked up to the mailbox. With a shaking hoof, fearful of what will happen, and expecting it to be Ritz’s revenge so early, he opened up the mailbox. “HIIIIIIIIIIIIII-oof!” The scene was something you wouldn’t have seen every other day. A mailbox was knocked down by a stallion with glasses in a pose not unlike those you see in those strange kung-fu movies, with a pink pony half out of the mailbox rolling her eyes as if she was seeing stars. “Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. I...I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you like that!” Panicking on the yard, Quills tried to poke and push the pink pony awake. “Ohhhh… Hey!” With a shake of her head, the pink mare jumped fully out of the box, a single letter in her hoof. Quills nearly jumped again at her sudden recovery. “Welcome to Ponyville!” the pink mare screamed loudly, enough to almost rupture poor Quills’s eardrums. Covering his ears, it took him a minute to realize the mare was handing some pink slip to him. “What’s this?” he asked. “It’s your invitation, silly! I always give a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party to newcomers!” the pink mare responded. Still scratching his ears from their incessant ringing, Quills took the slip. “Who is hosting this party, if I may ask?” Quills inquired. “That’d be me! Pinkamena Diane Pie! But everyone calls me Pinkie Pie!” the pink mare identified herself. She bounced up and down in place with a smile on her face, leading Quills to believe she must have had about 15 shots of espresso, or the equal amount of caffeine in tea. “Ah, well… thank you for the invitation Miss Pie. I’m sure my son and I…” “You have a kid? Doh, I forgot the invitation for RItz! C’mon, where is it?...” Pinkie Pie looked around for another slip. “How did you know my son’s name-” Quills was interrupted by a loud rumbling, seeming to come from his mailbox. “Oh no, I didn’t bring it with me, did I?” A loud boom answered Pinkie’s question. A loud boom shook Ritz. He sat up straight on his bed, looking around his room. There were many boxes scattered about the plain white walls of his room, filled with various items and belongings. Ritz would have been done with decorating his room if he wasn’t abducted by those three fillies. Seeing as nothing was out of the ordinary, Ritz slid out of the bed, and trotted to the living room, seeing nothing more was out of the ordinary, which only made him more curious as what the loud noise was. Suddenly, another loud boom was heard, but this one Ritz recognized as a door being opened forcefully. Ritz turned around and flinched. There, in the doorway leading outside, was Ritz’s father Quills, covered absolutely everywhere in small, brightly-colored paper. Ritz smiled abnormally, his way of laughing at the absurdity of all the confetti on Quills. Quills stepped inside and closed the door. He walked past Ritz to the door to his office. He opened the door and entered, closing the door behind him. Curious, Ritz entered the office. Most of it was now completed, most of the bookshelves being lined with books of many different genres and varieties. There were still a few boxes around that still needed to be unpacked. At this moment though, your concern would most likely go to the lone stallion in the middle of the room. Still covered in confetti, Quills laid down on the carpet in front of his desk, not moving a muscle. Ritz walked to his front to see Quills was wide awake, giving a thousand-yard stare to the wood paneling that formed the front of his desk. "confettiiiiiii..." Quills mumbled. At this, Ritz slowly walked backward, a bit scared and a bit worried for Quills's sanity. Before he could walk out though, Quills turned onto his back and held up a pink slip. "This is for you." Ritz grabbed the slip and scanned it. It read: Dear Newcomer, Welcome to Ponyville! In order to celebrate, I wish to throw a "Welcome to Ponyville!" for you! You are hereby invited to your party, which will begin tonight at 7. Don't be late (especially to your own party)! Ritz smiled before looking back at his father for an answer. "Yes, we can go. It would be rude to not go to a party made in our honor." Ritz gave a big smile before putting the invitation on the desk. Walking back to the door, Ritz looked back at his father. "Oh, don't worry. I'll just be here staring into the ceiling until it's time to go." Ritz raised an eyebrow at Quills before exiting the office. "Confettiiiiii..." Starve the Ego, Feed the SoulA vibrancy of yellow, orange, and red was played out across the sky as Celestia's sun was beginning its final descent, giving the light of power to her sister, Luna's moon. A flock of birds descended onto a tree among a green and young forest, tired from their flight and wishing nothing more than to reunite with loved ones and sleep comfortably in their tree. The birds were soon joined by crickets and mosquitos, their chirping and buzzing filling the air as the music of dusk was slowly coming to its end. Among the cacophony of squawks and caws, however, was a distinct, constant, and rhythmic sound of hoofsteps going down a age old dirt path, with a squeal of a cartwheel behind it. The hoofsteps belonged to an earth pony, his coat the color of the deep ocean blue. His mane was long and had a slight poof to it, a matter that would be not helpful, as sometimes the hair would fall onto the top of his small, boxy glasses, and he had to bat it away with a hoof and a small sigh. "Hey Ritz? You there?" The stallion asked. He turned his head behind him while he was still walking, seeing the bags of clothes, papers, and a small and large guitar sitting side by side, strings up to the dimming sky. A second layer and a colt, a lighter blue than the older one in front, but with an unkempt mane to match, popped out of the mess of bags like a meerkat, looking at the stallion. "We're getting close to Ponyville, but it's getting late. Do you want to stop now, or do you want to keep going?" The stallion asked, stopping the cart to push out another strand of his mane away from his glasses and out of his eyes. The colt only furrowed what little brow he had at the stallion, and spun his hoof around in the air. "Oh, sorry. Do you want to stay and camp for one more time?" The stallion again stopped to push more of his mane out from his eyes, while giving himself a slight knock in the head as if he forgot something. The colt replied with a shake of his head, and laid half of his body down on the bags the cart was carrying, the other half still inside the spot where he jumped out from. He looked up to the now-appearing stars with a small smile, the little lights twinkling in his eyes. "Heh, just wanna get the trip over and done with, huh?" Asked the stallion, receiving only a silent nod from the colt as he still looked up at the stars. The stallion raised his eyebrow at the colt in a bemused expression, before turning his head to the road and chuckling to himself. Well, that will do. He can just go to sleep anyway right now if he wanted to, poor thing had a bad fright last night with that bear... The stallion recalled the incident, whereby a local bear had scavenged really close to their camp site, and had been curious about their campfire. Luckily it left, but not before it came snout to snout with the colt. He probably won't ever forget it, that's a lifetime opportunity to be that close, but at his age he probably still sees it as a monster close encounter of the third kind. The stallion started walking again, only to stop to swipe away another strand of his mane. "Oof. I guess I better get my mane cut once we're there, huh?" The stallion remarked, the colt looking back at him and smiling with a nod that shook his own mane back and forth. "Are you sure you want to move to Ponyville, Ritz?" the stallion started to smirk and gave a glance at the colt, who now crossed his hooves with an unamused expression. The stallion stopped and turned around, getting close to the colt. "Come on! It would be wonderful! Look at us, moving to Canterlot, living like kings, having everything we want!" By now, the stallion was smiling with glee, and a far-off expression, while the colt only scowled. After seeing that he wouldn't give in, the stallion sighed and started walking again. "Oh fine. I suppose Canterlot is a silly place anyway, what with all the nobles, and ridiculous fashions," the stallion remarked with a smile. Then again, he stopped and turned towards the colt. "Though, I suppose you would look absolutely adorable in a tux." The colt scowled and looked away from the stallion, a tint of crimson appearing on his cheeks, and crossed his hooves. The stallion only patted his head and smiled. "Maybe we'll even find a dresser to help you get one! I'm sure all the fillies will swoon for you and your handsome tux!" The colt scowled and blushed harder. "*snerk* You know I'm just teasing you, right?" The stallion shook the colt's mane with his right hoof before turning around and walking along the road, squinting at the strange lights in the distance. "Hey Ritz! Look!" The stallion stopped and pointed his right hoof towards the horizon. For now he was pointing at a small town in the distance, as many lights were still on in their own houses,. The stallion doubted they would be on for much longer. With a swipe of his hoof to get rid of any more strands of his mane, the stallion trotted rather quickly down the road, hoping to catch the pony who had the title and keys to his and Ritz's house. The colt dive back under the bags, trying to make sure they weren't knocked loose from the sudden speed. ~~~~ Luckily, it seemed the town known as Ponyville didn't tuck in at the first sight of dark. Most ponies were still on others' yards talking to each other. The stallion trotted up to one pony who didn't seem preoccupied. "Excuse me? I'm sorry to bother you, but we are just moving into town, and I'm wondering where I can go to see how I can get the deed and house keys," the stallion asked. "Oh, you just have to see Mayor Mare! But what do you mean by 'we'?" the lady asked. At that moment, the colt popped up from the bags with a loud yawn, accompanied with another yawn coming from the stallion, with a tired expression evident on his face. “Aww. Ain’t he the cutest thing!” the mare cooed, as she rose up on her hindlegs and used the wagon as supports to get a better look at the colt, who tried his best to scowl at her before he succombed to sleep again. “Excuse me for being short, ma’am, but we are quite tired and would like nothing more than to get to our house and rest as soon as possible,” the stallion stated. “The town hall should be over there. I hope to see you again soon!” the mare pointed with her right hoof, then waved as the stallion dragged the cart over in the direction he was pointed to, the cart now starting to feel heavy as he pulled. After a few minutes, the stallion parked the cart in front of the Town Hall, noting it was surprisingly larger than he had considered what would be a town hall for a small town such as Ponyville. Walking inside, he felt his eyelids begin to droop, and shook his head in order to wake himself up if but only for one more hour. C’mon! Just 15 more minutes at least!, the stallion thought, as he walked towards what he thought was the door that led to Mayor Mare’s office. Stepping inside, he glanced to see that the mayor was more or less trying to pack up her belongings, closing up for the day. “Excuse me, miss Mare? I hope I’m not too late,” the stallion spoke, causing the mayor to flinch for a second. “Oh my, I didn’t see you there! I would have expected my assistant to come in to tell me a visitor is here!” the mayor exclaimed. She turned and trotted behind her desk, looking in drawers before sighing. “Am I to assume you are Escrito Pluma, the writer moving into a house here with his son?” “Please call me Quills ma’am. And yes, I am,” the stallion stated. “Are you an immigrant from the south, if I may ask? Your name isn’t in Equestrian, or at least it doesn’t sound like it is,” Mayor Mare remarked, as she sifted through paperwork in one of the drawers. “My father was Marexican, but I was born and raised in Phillydelphia, before moving to Manehatten for my work... What exactly are you looking for?” Quills asked before the mayor threw her hooves up in the air and groaned in frustration. “I can’t seem to find the deed to your house, mister Quills. I must have given it to my assistant to file somewhere. sigh, I’ll have to ask you to come in tomorrow at noon.” “Oh, OK then. I’m really sorry for barging in like this. If only I wasn’t stopped at the forest brook today I would have…” “No, no, I’m sure you have a perfectly valid reason, I’m just in a bit of a huff after what happened earlier today,” Mayor Mare sighed. “What happened?” “I will tell you tomorrow, as right now I’m in a bit of a rush to get home and relax tonight. Excuse me for acting a little slighted against you, as you have no fault in what that pink monstrosity did…” the mayor grounded her teeth in frustration. “Regardless, I do have the key to that house you had already paid for. 304 Mulberry Lane, correct?” The mayor raised up a duo of silver keys that both had the numbers ‘304’ on their tops. Quills nodded and took the keys from Mayor Mare. He waved goodbye, thanking Mayor Mare, before walking back to his cart, with his son still sleeping on top of the bags. Silently chuckling, he followed the road down to Mulberry Lane, reading the houses numbers before turning right and walking a little bit more before he found what was now his house. He used the keys to unlock the front door before heading back to the cart to grab the bags, waking up Ritz in the process. “C’mon now, son. Grab the bags and bring them in to 304, over there,” Quills said, putting the sleeping bags they had used whenever they stopped for the night on his back. Tired, the duo dragged their legs across the yard to their house, setting the bags down in the empty and unpainted living room. Quills brought the sleeping bags to the middle of the room before laying down on top of one, with Ritz laying down on the other soon after. “Well Ritz, I guess this is it. New house, new town, new life. Not that our life back in Manehatten was bad or anything, but...well…” Both ponies nodded in silent understanding. “It’s still summer, so I bet you’ll find some kids like you tomorrow. As for your dad, I’ll be seeing what we can do in this town, maybe find a school for you to enroll in the fall.” Quills heard a stirring from Ritz. “And yes, you are going to school. No ifs, buts, and/or anythings about it, you hear me?” Quills looked to see his son scowling at him, before sighing and softening his expression to a tired one, trying to get some sleep. You’ve been sleeping in the cart the whole day, and you’re still tired in the night? Sometimes I wonder about you, little guy. Ah well, at least I know what I’m doing tomorrow, and I can trust Ritz to behave himself. Quills shifted to get comfortable on his sleeping bag. You would have liked this. Your son is growing into a fine young colt. I only hope you will come back and see it yourself... Author's Note Hey! So...my first epic project in Fimfiction. I'm going for maybe ten chapters and see how far this little fic will go. Updates are going to be irregular until further notice. All chapter names will be based on songs as they apply. If you do not know the song, I'd advise you to look them up on youtube. Comment, like, and fav, if you would be so kind! Constructive Criticism is appreciated, as I still don't have an editor or proof-reader. Let me know if I missed any mistakes! TTFN
Turn the Page"Tea, tea, why did I forget to pack tea?..." Quills said to himself as he trudged rather than trotted to Mayor Mare's Town Hall. The late morning sun always drove spikes of sunshine into Quills's eyes whenever he didn't drink his tea, especially when he had his glasses on. And the last few days of camping on the way to Ponyville has been utter Tartarus, since he forgot to pack tea in moving all his immediate belongings. He arrived shortly afterwards to a light grey mare with a flashy green and yellow dyed striped mane. Quills didn't doubt this was probably some teenage niece or daughter of the Mayor's that was forced to do this job. He also reminded himself to not say anything about how horrible the colors looked on her. Don't say anything, don't say anything about her mane... Quills trotted up to the mare and saw that she was reading a magazine, one that he knew was followed in hot demand by the "cool" teenagers, according to his neighbor back in Manehatten, who also had a daughter that was the kind of foal he made sure to warn Ritz about. Please, oh please, don't have an indifferent voice... "Hello?" Quills tilted his head in the mare's direction. Said mare gave him a tentative glance before resuming her magazine. "I was supposed to meet Mayor Mare at noon today, which is only ten minutes away?" "Like, I dunno. Just wait until she calls you up or something," the mare replied. Excellent. She is one of those teens. Why can I never meet a smart one from a top-tier high school or at least a good one from college?... "Mr. Escrito Pluma? You may come into my office now." A loud intercom was heard in the room. "Escri...wait! You're Quills!?" the mare suddenly exclaimed. "Yes, that’s my name. Is there a problem?" Quills started trotting over to the main door to the office, looking back at the mare with a deadpan look. "Um, uh, no, there isn't! I was just surprised. We read 'To Love a Shadow' in English class a while ago as part of our modern literature unit, and for once, I thought english class was fun!" the mare practically jumped at her desk. "Huh. ‘I made English class fun’. That has to be one of the weirdest compliments I've heard," Quills remarked loudly, before stepping inside the mayor's office, closing the door with a loud thud. Inside, he could see more of the room than last night, since before he could see what little he could by some candlelight. Now though, with the sun shining through the large multi-panel windows (and right at his eyes again), he could see clearly everything there was about the office. The flooring was more deep blue than he had seen last night, and a large insignia showing what looked to be a town seal was stitched into the plush carpet design. At the far end of the room sat Mayor Mare, sipping from a cardboard cup bearing the insignia of some coffee shop that Quills remembered passing. “Would you like some coffee, Quills?” Mayor Mare asked. “No thanks. I don’t really like coffee all that much…” Immediately, the aforementioned drink was spit onto his face, courtesy of one Mayor Mare. “You don’t like coffee?! Are you even pony?! What kind of pony, especially in your line of work, doesn’t like coffee?!” Mayor Mare exclaimed. As a fellow pony of political prowess, she had learned to love the drink as if it were her husband. A husband that never cheated on her, never drank away from her, never used up her money... “I’m a pony that somehow doesn’t scream when burning coffee is spit onto his face, mayor...” Mayor Mare shifted her glasses to look at Quills again, and gasped. She pulled out a drawer from her desk to grab a couple tissues that were there in cases of her allergies acting up. She padded them on the stallion’s face, trying to wipe off the coffee. She winced whenever she saw a spot that was scalded onto Quills’s face. Quills was busy trying to wipe out the coffee stains on his glasses. “I’m so sorry Mr. Quills! I was just...surprised that...well you must understand I…” The stallion put a hoof up to the mayor’s mouth, silencing her. “It’s fine, Mayor, don’t worry,” Quills replied with a grin and a chuckle. “Believe me, I’ve had worse stuff sprayed all over my face.” Awkward silence followed, with the mayor blinking at Quills raising a hoof to the back of his head, a small blush on his grinning cheeks. “Right. Phrasing. Anyways…” Quills put his hoof down. “Did you get the deed?” Mayor Mare shook her head a bit to retain her composure. “oh yes, right...Yes I do.” She slid her hoof into another drawer and pulled out a couple of papers. She handed Quills a quill and some ink, and using his mouth he signed what he needed to complete on the deed. With one final slash confirming his signature, the paper suddenly glowed with a golden aura and floated in the air. As Quills stood back, the paper rose up and in a flash, disappeared. “Unicorn Papyrus. Magically enhanced paper that we use to sign big checks and household deeds. It’s quite expensive to have, you know,” Mayor Mare commented. “I know it is. I use a special kind that I write my final drafts and send to the publishers in Baltimare.” "Ah yes, you are that famous comedy writer from that reader's digest series, right?” "The One and Only!" Quills stood up proud on his hooves, posing in a regal form. The pose didn't last long however, as he slowly tipped over and lost his balance, landing with his muzzle on the floor and his rump in the air, his glasses falling onto the floor in front of him. "Ahck! Well, you get the point..." Mayor Mare gave a light chuckle before saying, "well you do seem to know how to make ponies laugh. On to our next order of business." The mayor shifted in her seat while Quills sat down comfortably again, adjusting his glasses. "I assume you need to have your son enrolled into our local elementary school here?" "You only have one school?" Quills asked. He at least expected two schools for this small town. "Yes, one public schoolhouse at least. I know it's not much to the city schools your son went to, but I assure you the teachers are the most qualified than any others that applied for the positions." "I'm not complaining, Mayor, I'm just surprised. What about high schools?" "Oh, we usually send the few teenagers that live here to Canterlot High, on the morning train." Quills put a hoof to his muzzle in deep thinking. After a minute, he replied, "I guess it saves me the hassle of choosing schools. What do I have to sign?" "Just sign basic information about your son here." The mayor pulled out another paper from her desk (I swear, how does she manage to have everything organized in a desk like that!) and laid it out in front of Quills. Using the same quill from before, he wrote everything the paper asked for, and completed it with his signature. He gave it back to the mayor, who scanned it for a minute, before widening her eyes. "Oh dear. Your son is mute?" Mayor Mare asked. Quills gave out a tentative sigh and slumped. "Yes, he is. It's a bit of a complicated story that I wish to not talk about right now." "It's not the story I'm worried about, Mr. Pluma. I'm worried of how he is going to fit in with his classmates. You realise that we have no special needs or aids in our school system, you see." Quills gave a light chuckle. "Do not worry, mayor. Back in his old school, he was stubborn enough about being in regular classes that they allowed him, even if I tried to convince him otherwise. He didn't have as much a problem back then, I'm sure he won't have any problem now," Quills replied. "Regardless, do you understand the risk that he may struggle with his schoolwork?" "Yes, I do mayor, and I assure you it won't be a major problem." "Well, then I suppose that's all for now. Thank you for coming here to Ponyville, Mr. Pluma. Now if you excuse me, I have to work on some papers sent by Princess Sparkle." Quills quickly stood up and started to trot out when he stopped. "Wait a second, you haven't told me what that pink monstrosity you were talking about last night was!" "Oh dear, I haven't. Well, I'm sorry but these papers take top priority, maybe next time?" Mayor Mare asked. "Fine. It sounded so interesting though..." Quills sighed as he left the door out of the office. "Mr. Pluma?" Quills heard his name called, and turned to see that same assistant mare from before. "Yes?" he replied. "I just want to say sorry for, uh, acting like that from before..." "Think nothing of it. I haven't had my tea yet, we're all a bit irritable once in a while," Quills patted her on the head. "Yeah....hey! Since you're new around here, why don't I give you a tour of the town? I know a few good places where you can get your, uh, tea, I guess." "Ah, that would be wonderful. What about your job though?" "The afternoon assistant is already here, I'm already clocked out, and ready to go when you are." "Phrasing." "Phrase..." the mare widened her eyes. "Act two of To Love a Shadow? You know, for a thirty something like yourself, you have a dirtier mind then some of the boys at my school," she deadpanned. "I'm twenty nine, and I prefer the term, 'sexy imagination', if you will." The mare widened her eyes again. She coughed to herself before speaking in a richer-than-thou voice, "Well I would say that's subjective, my dear Blaze. To what do you think would be the most attractive aspect of any mare?" Quills coughed to himself before speaking in the hooflyn accent he acquired in Manehatten, "Do you want the right answer, or the true one?" "The right answer, for your sake." "You, of course!" "And what of the true one?" "Mare, have you even seen the models these days!?" Both ponies started laughing loudly, reenacting a scene from the story the mare had mentioned. They heard an "ahem" from a white pegasus mare with a blonde mane. "Oh, uh, sorry ma'am. We'll, uh, be on our way then." With a couple trots, the duo quickly exited the building, blushing with embarrassment. Looking around, Quills could see that the town was lively in the middle of the day. An orange earth pony was pulling a cart full of apples while talking to a cyan blue Pegasus flying above her, while a unicorn was talking to a grey Pegasus mare with blue saddlebags on her flanks. All around him, he can see ponies of various colors and even races talking, playing, working, and above all just enjoying the company with each other. In the back of his mind, he noted that this was paradise compared to what happened back in Manehatten. "That offer is still up, if you want to go," he heard the mare next to him say. "I would be delighted to accept it. Let's come back to my house first so I can pick up my son. I'm sure he would also want a tour." Both ponies started walking down the road, Quills still marveling by how bustling the small town of Ponyville could be. Author's Note Please tell me if Quills character is consistent or not. I have a feeling that he is but I don't immediately see anywhere where I could improve him. Once again, Comment and rate! And Favorite too, if you would be so kind! A bit of a hassle to get this one out, but then again, a good portion of the writers on the site like me are going to start focusing on school soon. Ugh. Now I have to meet people again. Up next, our mute Ritz is going to meet his new friends, whether he wants to or not! TTFN
Cut the KidIt was all a haze. A blur of colors streaked past Ritz's vision. Suddenly frightened, the colt had yelped out a surprise, causing him to step back and unfortunately trip over himself landing squarely on his back. "Watch where you're goin' with this thing, Scoots, you almost killed somepony!" he heard. "Ah, he woulda been fine. Nothing more than a bruise would have happened if I did hit him," he heard another voice say. "Scootaloo!" "Ritz!" he finally heard a familiar voice. Focusing his eyes, he saw his father standing over him with a worried expression. "Ritz! Are you okay?!" his father asked. Ritz nodded and stood up, shaking his head to get rid of the last few stars in his vision. "Did you hurt anything? Head, neck, your back? Did you accidentally bite your tongue? Did a tooth fall out? HAVE YOUR EARS BEEN RUPTURED?!" Quills screamed at Ritz. His father kept shaking his head, checking for any injuries. Ritz shoved himself away with an audible breath, looking at Quills disdainfully. "Er, sorry for that. I guess it was just a fall..." Ritz raised an eyebrow at Quills "What? I'm your father. I've got to needlessly check for any injury my son has, even if you just bang your hoof on a table. Ritz was not amused. "Excuse me, sir. I just want to, uh, apologize... because I felt really bad for almost, er, 'killing' your son with a HARMLESS SCOOTER." A small orange filly with short but wild violet hair walked up to Quills, yelling the last bit back at two other fillies down the road, one that was white as a marshmallow with a fuchsia mane, the other with a cream coat and a short red mane, with small saddle bags on her flanks. "Oh, nothing to be ashamed about, my dear, at least to me. It's my son who you should apologize to," Quills replied. The orange filly walked behind the stallion up to to Ritz. "Hey there. Sorry for running you over like that. I guess I wasn't really paying attention," the filly apologized. Ritz responded by brushing his hoof down through his hair while smiling. "What's wrong, something wrong with your voice? Gasp, I must've scared your voice out of you!" the filly exasperated. Her eyes grew with worry, and she quickly turned around. "Girls, help! The kid lost his voice!" Quickly, the two other fillies dashed down to where Ritz was, the cream coated one taking out some rope to lasso his legs, pinning him down. Ritz was frantic, with his eyes open in fear and confusion as he looked towards his father. "Mister, can we take him to see if we can help your son? We've been trying to get our doctor cutie marks but my sister won't let us near any 'doctoring' tools," the cream coated filly asked. Quills was at first surprised at how quickly the filly managed to tie his poor son, but soon he smiled in a way that Ritz knew he was going to be betrayed by his father. Again. "Sure, we were just coming back to our house after a young mare had given us a tour of Ponyville. I'm sure he wouldn't mind making some new friends." At this, Ritz gave Quills the stink eye, making eye contact with him. With a "Cutie Mark Crusader doctors!" hurrah by the the trio of fillies, they dragged off their prized colt, all while Ritz never broke eye contact with Quills until they were out of sight, reminding him that he'll never forgive his father for this. Quills laughed it off. "Well, at least now he's in the company of some peers. Hopefully that will get him to be more sociable when school comes." He trotted down the path, giving small greetings to neighbors and passer-bys. After a few minutes he reached his house, and entered. Inside, he saw some boxes and some bags lying around. "Ah, the movers must have come by today to drop off the rest of our belongings," he remarked to himself as he inspected the contents inside some of the boxes for any damage. Seeing none, he quickly got to work removing everything from the boxes and neatly ordering them on where they would go. "Ritz, could you pass me that tape cutter? This box is propped up like a shelf with the flaps out on the side so I'll need you to hold the flaps while I cut them open," Quills asked. No response. "Ritz, are you there?" Quills looked out from the box to see that his son wasn't there. At that point, he remembered that he had left his son to the mercy of those three fillies from before. "No matter, I can do it myself," Quills reassured himself. Grabbing the tape-cutter, he proceeded to cut away the tape, before the cutter jammed somewhere near the top. Trying to bring it down, the cutter sliced through the tape like butter, catching Quills off-guard and letting the content of the box fall down on top of him. It swarmed him like an avalanche, and he poked his head out of what seemed to be a pile of books, his glasses nearly fallen off of him. "Huh, I guess that's what that lady back in Manhattan called 'Karma'..." "Alright, first things first. Let's assess the patient!" The trio of fillies had pulled Ritz into a rather nice treehouse, according to him. He would have liked to look around and admire it, if he wasn't tied up and left by his father to suffer what these fillies would do to him. "The patient has lost his voice in a preventable accident involving reckless driving of a scooter," the white filly reported. "Hey, I said I was sorry!" the orange filly retorted. "...do we have any way we can test the patient to see how he has lost his voice?" the cream coated filly asked. "I say let's open his mouth to check his tongue!" Wielding a sizable pair of tongs taken from the saddlebags, the orange coated filly marched up to Ritz and opened his muzzle, using the tongs to grab his tongue and pulled it out as much as she could. Ritz hissed in pain. He wanted to scream, but as he couldn't he settled on making his father scream later. "Nope, his tongue's fine. What else can we try?" The filly let go of the tongs, leaving Ritz to reel back his tongue. He made an effort to snap his jaw at the filly to scare her away. "Watch it, he's fiesty!" "We could try to check his throat or stomach, see if there's anything wrong with his diaphragm." "Dia-what?" "Check his stomach to see if anything is blocking him from speaking!" the white filly exasperated. "Oh, so you mean make him throw up? This should do it!" A sudden pain brought Ritz to full alert, as he suffered a punch to his lower chest. "You punch like a girl, Scootaloo," the cream coated filly remarked. "That's because I am one, Apple Bloom," the orange coated filly named Scootaloo retorted. "Well, you still punch like one. Instead, you need to learn how to kick like one!" Leaning forward on her forelegs, the cream coated filly named Apple Bloom let loose with her back legs, sending Ritz through the air before landing squarely on the opposite wall. This was too much, he thought. Being in a world of pain meant equal pain must be retaliated on his father, but first he needed a way to get away from the fillies. "Girls? What in tarnation are you doing up there? I could hear that kick from back at the farm, Apple Bloom, you better have not tried to buck one of your friends!" Salvation came to Ritz in a form of an adult voice. Now he just needed that adult on his side. Calling up his hidden power, he let loose a secret weapon of children everywhere. "Apple Bloom, what are you-" looking at the opposite wall from where the trio of fillies were standing, a blonde-hair, orange coated mare peeked out from the entrance to the treehouse to see a tied-up colt quietly sobbing, a small hoofprint on his chest giving the reason why. "Apple Bloom! What the heck has gotten into you! Why are beating up young colts!?" The blond-haired mare ran to the young colt, untieing him. Ritz clung onto her foreleg, trying to sob even more to clinch the victory. "Sorry, sis. We were just trying to help him," Apple Bloom replied. "In what twisted world does kicking a colt help anypony?!" the mare retorted. She started to stroke Ritz's mane, trying to calm him down. He smirked in his mind, knowing he had the mare hook, line, and sinker, as his father would say. "We had an accident with Scootaloo's scooter, and now he doesn't say anything! We thought he lost his voice somehow!" Apple Bloom said. "Well did it ever occur to you are that maybe he just doesn't like talking?" the mare asked. "Uh...no....we just wanted to try and see if we could get our doctor cutie marks..." The mare sighed before letting go of Ritz to turn to the three fillies. "How many times to I have to give this speech to you girls. You will get your cutie marks in time, you just have to-" "Uh, dude, you okay?" Scootaloo remarked. The four turned to see Ritz holding his chest in pain. Red flags in the mare's mind flared as she rushed to the colt's aid, brushing away his foreleg holding his chest. A couple prods with her hoof and she sighed in relief. "Don't worry, nothing is really broken, at least not enough," the mare replied. Ritz raised an eyebrow at her. "I'll put it to ya this way: if Apple Bloom was a year older, you would probably have your sternum broken in two." Ritz blinked at her, before he winced at another prod. The mare looked to see a major bruise forming where Apple Bloom had kicked him. "Oof. I'm going to have to get this cleaned up. Come with me, it'll be quick. Granny's made some supper too, if you want to join. And you three!" the mare turned around to the three young fillies. "Come with us. You can have supper too if you want, but don't expect to be unpunished for this!" Helping the colt up, the five went out the exit and climbed down from the tree house. Ritz had often thought about farm life. Living in a cramped city such as Manehatten definitely made you cherish the country life. It's part of the reason why he chose to go to Ponyville, so he and his father could enjoy more in their lives instead of the tight apartment with weird neighbors and bad schools and... "Hellooo. Equestria to colt? Are you there?" Scootaloo's voice brought Ritz back from his city life memories. Focusing his eyes, he found himself at a big table loaded with food. The three fillies sat next to him on the table, while on the opposite side sat an aging green mare with a hair bun, a big red stallion with a long blonde mane, and the mare from before, back at the treehouse. Ritz salivated at the abundance of food. Everywhere on the table were apple fritters, apple pies, apple everything. Another inspection of the room and Ritz realized everything with this family was about apples. "Sorry for the big feast, little feller. This is the day we celebrate the time when I had to drive away the biggest and meanest flock o' fruit bats you'd had ever seen!" the old green mare said, flailing her forelegs in the air. Ritz couldn't help but smile. "So what were you four doing at that tree house? I hope you weren't doing what I think you were doing with these fine girls..." Both the young mare and the stallion coughed loudly. "Uh, granny? Let's not have to talk about that to the kids yet, ya hear? Besides, I caught Apple Bloom giving a swift buck to the colt's chest. It's a nasty bruise you're going to have for a few days though, kid," the mare said. Ritz winced and looked at his chest, seeing a general blue spot around the upper area. "I'd suggest to try and walk easy for those few days. I think the best example would be to stay away from these three, huh?" the mare laughed. "I told you, Applejack, we were only trying to help!" Apple Bloom said. "Help with what, Bloom?" the mare Applejack called Granny asked. "Help with his voice problem or whatever. I think he's just one of those silent types," Applejack responded. Ritz sunk a little into his seat. "Ain't nothing to be afraid, colt. We're all family here. What's your name, by the way?" Granny asked. Ritz sighed before crossing his hoof over his throat, a sign that he used whenever he needed to tell ponies he couldn't speak. "What's wrong, griffin got your tongue?" Scootaloo asked. Ritz gave her a deadpan expression before crossing his throat again. "I knew it, there was something wrong with his throat! Scootaloo, are sure you checked his tongue right?" Apple Bloom asked. "Yeah, but I can check it again if you want," Scootaloo replied. At this, Ritz's eyes shot open, and he stumbled away from the fillies before they could do anything more to him. With a scared look he crossed his throat again, hoping to get the message across before anything else happens to him. "I think he's trying to tell us he can't speak, like he's a mute or something," the red stallion said. Elated, Ritz ran to the stallion, hugging his neck and nodding to everyone, before running back to his seat. "Er, what's a mute?" Scootaloo asked. Ritz repeatedly slammed his head on the table. The door opened, and Ritz stepped inside to a myriad of boxes and a couch he recognized from the apartment. He looked at some of the boxes to see more familiar items from the apartment, and guessed the movers had come in before. He walked a bit wobbly, as a full stomach and a bruise could allow him to walk. He learned much about the Apple family back at supper. Apparently they were the most important farmers in the region, supplying most of Ponyville's food. Their main specialty was apples, which explained the apple food and items in the room. He also learned about Apple Bloom's group of friends. They called themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It consisted of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and the white filly whose name was Sweetie Belle. They were, as Scootaloo said, "on a quest to find their cutie marks". They said that he could join the group too, even though he had his cutie mark already. With a piece of paper and a quill, Ritz told them his name and where he came from, explaining that he and his father were new to Ponyville, as they've just moved in. A mare had given them a tour of the village though, and they know relatively where to go for what they need. Saying goodbye, the mare named Applejack said that he was always welcome to the farm, and would love to welcome Quills too at the party. He wondered what she meant by party when he arrived at the house. "Ritz? Was that you who closed the door?" Ritz heard his father's voice. He followed it to a door that was propped open with a book. He went inside to see a humorous sight. Shelves of books were lined across all the walls, and in the middle lied his father in a tangle of packaging tape, his glasses fallen off to the side. "Thank goodness you're here Ritz. I got in a bit of a tangle trying to unwrap the boxes. Of course I'd find a way to get myself tangled in packaging tape of all things, huh?" Quills laughed. "At least I was able to finish up your room on the opposite hallway." Ritz looked around the room to see various tape peeling off the walls, which would effectively keep Quills in place for only a few more hours. To Quills's horror, Ritz smiled. He smiled in such a way that Quills knew he was going to be betrayed by his son. Again. "Ritmo Porâ, don't you dare walk out that door. Ritz?! RIIIIITZ!" Author's Note Sorry for the late update, wasn't exactly able to get back on the internet when I typed it up. Self-edited, so if you see any mistakes in spelling or grammar that I missed, please tell me.
Wish You Were HereMorning. The enemy of Ponykind. It ceases to desist its attacks of sunshine in your eyes and taking away your morning tea. Oh wait, you still haven’t bought any tea. “Ritz!” Quills called. A few minutes later, his son slowly walked to the kitchen where he was. No tables or chairs were anywhere in sight, as Quills was still trying to get everything from the movers and putting all the furniture in place. With haste, he expected to be done by the end of the day. “You want to go out to the cafe, Ritz? I’ve heard they have some good tea, and I know you’re itching for some real food.” Ritz, with half-lidded eyebrows trying to wake up, walked out of the kitchen. One minute later, he came back with his writing journal, a tool that used whenever he wanted to communicate with Quills. After a few minutes of writing with his pencil in the journal, Ritz propped it up for Quills to see, before leaving the room again. In hoofwriting that Quills would have chided his son for if it wasn’t the morning, it read, “You can go. I had eaten ALOT at the Apples yesterday (farmer neighbors, you should meet them!) so I’m not hungry. I’ll be sleeping in, planning something for you waking me up at this hour...” Quills would have gulped, but the early morning didn’t let him feel fear at his son’s incoming revenge, as he closed the journal. He turned on the sink to wash his face, (Thank you for having utilities on, Mayor!) dried it, then adjusted his glasses before walking out into sunshine death rays. Quills would have decided to go back in the household and wait until he was fully awake before he would go out, but the mailbox was shaking. Wondering why an inanimate object had suddenly become animated, blaming trouble-making unicorns along the way, Quills walked up to the mailbox. With a shaking hoof, fearful of what will happen, and expecting it to be Ritz’s revenge so early, he opened up the mailbox. “HIIIIIIIIIIIIII-oof!” The scene was something you wouldn’t have seen every other day. A mailbox was knocked down by a stallion with glasses in a pose not unlike those you see in those strange kung-fu movies, with a pink pony half out of the mailbox rolling her eyes as if she was seeing stars. “Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. I...I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you like that!” Panicking on the yard, Quills tried to poke and push the pink pony awake. “Ohhhh… Hey!” With a shake of her head, the pink mare jumped fully out of the box, a single letter in her hoof. Quills nearly jumped again at her sudden recovery. “Welcome to Ponyville!” the pink mare screamed loudly, enough to almost rupture poor Quills’s eardrums. Covering his ears, it took him a minute to realize the mare was handing some pink slip to him. “What’s this?” he asked. “It’s your invitation, silly! I always give a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party to newcomers!” the pink mare responded. Still scratching his ears from their incessant ringing, Quills took the slip. “Who is hosting this party, if I may ask?” Quills inquired. “That’d be me! Pinkamena Diane Pie! But everyone calls me Pinkie Pie!” the pink mare identified herself. She bounced up and down in place with a smile on her face, leading Quills to believe she must have had about 15 shots of espresso, or the equal amount of caffeine in tea. “Ah, well… thank you for the invitation Miss Pie. I’m sure my son and I…” “You have a kid? Doh, I forgot the invitation for RItz! C’mon, where is it?...” Pinkie Pie looked around for another slip. “How did you know my son’s name-” Quills was interrupted by a loud rumbling, seeming to come from his mailbox. “Oh no, I didn’t bring it with me, did I?” A loud boom answered Pinkie’s question. A loud boom shook Ritz. He sat up straight on his bed, looking around his room. There were many boxes scattered about the plain white walls of his room, filled with various items and belongings. Ritz would have been done with decorating his room if he wasn’t abducted by those three fillies. Seeing as nothing was out of the ordinary, Ritz slid out of the bed, and trotted to the living room, seeing nothing more was out of the ordinary, which only made him more curious as what the loud noise was. Suddenly, another loud boom was heard, but this one Ritz recognized as a door being opened forcefully. Ritz turned around and flinched. There, in the doorway leading outside, was Ritz’s father Quills, covered absolutely everywhere in small, brightly-colored paper. Ritz smiled abnormally, his way of laughing at the absurdity of all the confetti on Quills. Quills stepped inside and closed the door. He walked past Ritz to the door to his office. He opened the door and entered, closing the door behind him. Curious, Ritz entered the office. Most of it was now completed, most of the bookshelves being lined with books of many different genres and varieties. There were still a few boxes around that still needed to be unpacked. At this moment though, your concern would most likely go to the lone stallion in the middle of the room. Still covered in confetti, Quills laid down on the carpet in front of his desk, not moving a muscle. Ritz walked to his front to see Quills was wide awake, giving a thousand-yard stare to the wood paneling that formed the front of his desk. "confettiiiiiii..." Quills mumbled. At this, Ritz slowly walked backward, a bit scared and a bit worried for Quills's sanity. Before he could walk out though, Quills turned onto his back and held up a pink slip. "This is for you." Ritz grabbed the slip and scanned it. It read: Dear Newcomer, Welcome to Ponyville! In order to celebrate, I wish to throw a "Welcome to Ponyville!" for you! You are hereby invited to your party, which will begin tonight at 7. Don't be late (especially to your own party)! Ritz smiled before looking back at his father for an answer. "Yes, we can go. It would be rude to not go to a party made in our honor." Ritz gave a big smile before putting the invitation on the desk. Walking back to the door, Ritz looked back at his father. "Oh, don't worry. I'll just be here staring into the ceiling until it's time to go." Ritz raised an eyebrow at Quills before exiting the office. "Confettiiiiii..."
Starve the Ego, Feed the SoulA vibrancy of yellow, orange, and red was played out across the sky as Celestia's sun was beginning its final descent, giving the light of power to her sister, Luna's moon. A flock of birds descended onto a tree among a green and young forest, tired from their flight and wishing nothing more than to reunite with loved ones and sleep comfortably in their tree. The birds were soon joined by crickets and mosquitos, their chirping and buzzing filling the air as the music of dusk was slowly coming to its end. Among the cacophony of squawks and caws, however, was a distinct, constant, and rhythmic sound of hoofsteps going down a age old dirt path, with a squeal of a cartwheel behind it. The hoofsteps belonged to an earth pony, his coat the color of the deep ocean blue. His mane was long and had a slight poof to it, a matter that would be not helpful, as sometimes the hair would fall onto the top of his small, boxy glasses, and he had to bat it away with a hoof and a small sigh. "Hey Ritz? You there?" The stallion asked. He turned his head behind him while he was still walking, seeing the bags of clothes, papers, and a small and large guitar sitting side by side, strings up to the dimming sky. A second layer and a colt, a lighter blue than the older one in front, but with an unkempt mane to match, popped out of the mess of bags like a meerkat, looking at the stallion. "We're getting close to Ponyville, but it's getting late. Do you want to stop now, or do you want to keep going?" The stallion asked, stopping the cart to push out another strand of his mane away from his glasses and out of his eyes. The colt only furrowed what little brow he had at the stallion, and spun his hoof around in the air. "Oh, sorry. Do you want to stay and camp for one more time?" The stallion again stopped to push more of his mane out from his eyes, while giving himself a slight knock in the head as if he forgot something. The colt replied with a shake of his head, and laid half of his body down on the bags the cart was carrying, the other half still inside the spot where he jumped out from. He looked up to the now-appearing stars with a small smile, the little lights twinkling in his eyes. "Heh, just wanna get the trip over and done with, huh?" Asked the stallion, receiving only a silent nod from the colt as he still looked up at the stars. The stallion raised his eyebrow at the colt in a bemused expression, before turning his head to the road and chuckling to himself. Well, that will do. He can just go to sleep anyway right now if he wanted to, poor thing had a bad fright last night with that bear... The stallion recalled the incident, whereby a local bear had scavenged really close to their camp site, and had been curious about their campfire. Luckily it left, but not before it came snout to snout with the colt. He probably won't ever forget it, that's a lifetime opportunity to be that close, but at his age he probably still sees it as a monster close encounter of the third kind. The stallion started walking again, only to stop to swipe away another strand of his mane. "Oof. I guess I better get my mane cut once we're there, huh?" The stallion remarked, the colt looking back at him and smiling with a nod that shook his own mane back and forth. "Are you sure you want to move to Ponyville, Ritz?" the stallion started to smirk and gave a glance at the colt, who now crossed his hooves with an unamused expression. The stallion stopped and turned around, getting close to the colt. "Come on! It would be wonderful! Look at us, moving to Canterlot, living like kings, having everything we want!" By now, the stallion was smiling with glee, and a far-off expression, while the colt only scowled. After seeing that he wouldn't give in, the stallion sighed and started walking again. "Oh fine. I suppose Canterlot is a silly place anyway, what with all the nobles, and ridiculous fashions," the stallion remarked with a smile. Then again, he stopped and turned towards the colt. "Though, I suppose you would look absolutely adorable in a tux." The colt scowled and looked away from the stallion, a tint of crimson appearing on his cheeks, and crossed his hooves. The stallion only patted his head and smiled. "Maybe we'll even find a dresser to help you get one! I'm sure all the fillies will swoon for you and your handsome tux!" The colt scowled and blushed harder. "*snerk* You know I'm just teasing you, right?" The stallion shook the colt's mane with his right hoof before turning around and walking along the road, squinting at the strange lights in the distance. "Hey Ritz! Look!" The stallion stopped and pointed his right hoof towards the horizon. For now he was pointing at a small town in the distance, as many lights were still on in their own houses,. The stallion doubted they would be on for much longer. With a swipe of his hoof to get rid of any more strands of his mane, the stallion trotted rather quickly down the road, hoping to catch the pony who had the title and keys to his and Ritz's house. The colt dive back under the bags, trying to make sure they weren't knocked loose from the sudden speed. ~~~~ Luckily, it seemed the town known as Ponyville didn't tuck in at the first sight of dark. Most ponies were still on others' yards talking to each other. The stallion trotted up to one pony who didn't seem preoccupied. "Excuse me? I'm sorry to bother you, but we are just moving into town, and I'm wondering where I can go to see how I can get the deed and house keys," the stallion asked. "Oh, you just have to see Mayor Mare! But what do you mean by 'we'?" the lady asked. At that moment, the colt popped up from the bags with a loud yawn, accompanied with another yawn coming from the stallion, with a tired expression evident on his face. “Aww. Ain’t he the cutest thing!” the mare cooed, as she rose up on her hindlegs and used the wagon as supports to get a better look at the colt, who tried his best to scowl at her before he succombed to sleep again. “Excuse me for being short, ma’am, but we are quite tired and would like nothing more than to get to our house and rest as soon as possible,” the stallion stated. “The town hall should be over there. I hope to see you again soon!” the mare pointed with her right hoof, then waved as the stallion dragged the cart over in the direction he was pointed to, the cart now starting to feel heavy as he pulled. After a few minutes, the stallion parked the cart in front of the Town Hall, noting it was surprisingly larger than he had considered what would be a town hall for a small town such as Ponyville. Walking inside, he felt his eyelids begin to droop, and shook his head in order to wake himself up if but only for one more hour. C’mon! Just 15 more minutes at least!, the stallion thought, as he walked towards what he thought was the door that led to Mayor Mare’s office. Stepping inside, he glanced to see that the mayor was more or less trying to pack up her belongings, closing up for the day. “Excuse me, miss Mare? I hope I’m not too late,” the stallion spoke, causing the mayor to flinch for a second. “Oh my, I didn’t see you there! I would have expected my assistant to come in to tell me a visitor is here!” the mayor exclaimed. She turned and trotted behind her desk, looking in drawers before sighing. “Am I to assume you are Escrito Pluma, the writer moving into a house here with his son?” “Please call me Quills ma’am. And yes, I am,” the stallion stated. “Are you an immigrant from the south, if I may ask? Your name isn’t in Equestrian, or at least it doesn’t sound like it is,” Mayor Mare remarked, as she sifted through paperwork in one of the drawers. “My father was Marexican, but I was born and raised in Phillydelphia, before moving to Manehatten for my work... What exactly are you looking for?” Quills asked before the mayor threw her hooves up in the air and groaned in frustration. “I can’t seem to find the deed to your house, mister Quills. I must have given it to my assistant to file somewhere. sigh, I’ll have to ask you to come in tomorrow at noon.” “Oh, OK then. I’m really sorry for barging in like this. If only I wasn’t stopped at the forest brook today I would have…” “No, no, I’m sure you have a perfectly valid reason, I’m just in a bit of a huff after what happened earlier today,” Mayor Mare sighed. “What happened?” “I will tell you tomorrow, as right now I’m in a bit of a rush to get home and relax tonight. Excuse me for acting a little slighted against you, as you have no fault in what that pink monstrosity did…” the mayor grounded her teeth in frustration. “Regardless, I do have the key to that house you had already paid for. 304 Mulberry Lane, correct?” The mayor raised up a duo of silver keys that both had the numbers ‘304’ on their tops. Quills nodded and took the keys from Mayor Mare. He waved goodbye, thanking Mayor Mare, before walking back to his cart, with his son still sleeping on top of the bags. Silently chuckling, he followed the road down to Mulberry Lane, reading the houses numbers before turning right and walking a little bit more before he found what was now his house. He used the keys to unlock the front door before heading back to the cart to grab the bags, waking up Ritz in the process. “C’mon now, son. Grab the bags and bring them in to 304, over there,” Quills said, putting the sleeping bags they had used whenever they stopped for the night on his back. Tired, the duo dragged their legs across the yard to their house, setting the bags down in the empty and unpainted living room. Quills brought the sleeping bags to the middle of the room before laying down on top of one, with Ritz laying down on the other soon after. “Well Ritz, I guess this is it. New house, new town, new life. Not that our life back in Manehatten was bad or anything, but...well…” Both ponies nodded in silent understanding. “It’s still summer, so I bet you’ll find some kids like you tomorrow. As for your dad, I’ll be seeing what we can do in this town, maybe find a school for you to enroll in the fall.” Quills heard a stirring from Ritz. “And yes, you are going to school. No ifs, buts, and/or anythings about it, you hear me?” Quills looked to see his son scowling at him, before sighing and softening his expression to a tired one, trying to get some sleep. You’ve been sleeping in the cart the whole day, and you’re still tired in the night? Sometimes I wonder about you, little guy. Ah well, at least I know what I’m doing tomorrow, and I can trust Ritz to behave himself. Quills shifted to get comfortable on his sleeping bag. You would have liked this. Your son is growing into a fine young colt. I only hope you will come back and see it yourself... Author's Note Hey! So...my first epic project in Fimfiction. I'm going for maybe ten chapters and see how far this little fic will go. Updates are going to be irregular until further notice. All chapter names will be based on songs as they apply. If you do not know the song, I'd advise you to look them up on youtube. Comment, like, and fav, if you would be so kind! Constructive Criticism is appreciated, as I still don't have an editor or proof-reader. Let me know if I missed any mistakes! TTFN
