Rune Factory: Friendship is Magic

Chapter 2

Welcome to Ponyville

Part 1

The next morning, Hope got ready for the journey that the day was bringing. She chose to where a blue overall-dress that went to her knees with a pink shirt under it.  It was easy for her to tie her new boots with her blond hair tied in a side ponytail, pink flowers covering the band. Even though it seemed a little unnecessary to her, she wanted to make a good impression at her new home.

After saying good-bye to her hometown and father, Hope, fully packed with the necessities needed to start her new life, arrived at the path where she met the princess and found Princess Luna waiting for her.

"My sister told me that you have agreed to come to Equestria. I, and everypony in Equestria, am eternally grateful. Now, are you ready to go? Once I use the spell, it will be some time before you could see your father again. It takes a lot of magical energy to teleport and it would take some time for that energy to recover."

Hope looked back at her father's farm one last time before turning toward the princess once more. Taking in a deep breath, she answered her.

"I'm ready."

With the Earthmate's permission, Luna focused her magic on the spell, her horn glowing bright. A flash of light blinded Hope, causing her to cover her eyes to keep the blindness from becoming permanent. The bright light stayed for a few minutes before Hope could sense it dimming.

Finally, the light completely faded and Hope uncovered her eyes to see an amazing sight. She was on a hill with a path that leads to a quaint town at the bottom of the hill. Next to the town was a dark forest and behind the town was a mountain with a castle protruding from the side of the mountain's peak. Walking around in the town were various, smaller ponies of every shape, size, and color.

Hope was fascinated at the sight, but soon felt intimidated at the thought of being the only human in all of Equestria, much less the town ahead of her. Realizing what she was thinking, she shook her head.

"Get a grip, Hope. You may be the only human in this world, but that doesn't mean you should be nervous."

Hope jumped when she heard a person talking to someone. She hid behind a tree and watched as a lavender alicorn walked up the path from the town. She wasn't as tall as the princesses, but she was just tall enough to reach her shoulders. She had a navy mane and tail with a pink strip on both. She also had a magenta starburst mark on her flank with small, white stars surrounding it. On the alicorn's back was a purple and green wingless dragon that was the size of a sack of potatoes.

"Are you sure this 'Earthmate,' is supposed to me here? I don't see her anywhere." The dragon asked, looking around.

"The letter that Princess Celestia sent said that Princess Luna would send the Earthmate to Moonlight Hill. We should know it's her because she is not a pony." The alicorn explained.

Realizing they were talking about her, Hope cleared her throat, accidentally startling the pair in the process. She left her hiding place and voiced to the pair.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. Are one of you, by any chance, Twilight Sparkle?"

Recovering from the shocks that startled the pony, the alicorn cleared her throat and introduced herself.

"It's alright. And yes. I am Twilight Sparkle." She then gestured to the dragon, which fell from her back. "And this is my assistant, Spike. I take it that you are the Earthmate that the princesses told me about?"

Hope nodded.

"Yes. My name's Hope. It's a pleasure to meet you both."

Spike cocked his head and asked a question.

"What are you?"

"Spike! That's rude!" Twilight scolded the dragon.

"I was just curious." The dragon protested.

Hope waved her hands in defense, hoping to prevent a fight.

"No-no. It's alright. I was expecting questions like that."

She then looked toward Spike, placing a hand on her chest.

"My general species are known as humans. Earthmates are a special kind of humans that great in farming and taming monsters."

This amazed the young dragon and brought an interest to the alicorn. But the sound of the town below brought Twilight back to reality, enabling her to remember what she was here for.

"Sounds interesting. I'd love to see how an Earthmate is able to tame monsters, but we have to get moving. Spike and I are supposed to take you to your farm and show you around Ponyville."

Hope silently gulped as she followed Twilight and Spike around the outskirts of town to make their way to her farm before introducing the newest resident to the denizens of Ponyville. But as they were halfway there, a scream, though soft, reached the ears of the trio. Spike and Twilight recognized the owner of the voice.

"Fluttershy!"

Hope ran behind Twilight as she and Spike made their way to a pasture to find a yellow Pegasus with a pink mane and tail with three pink butterflies on her flank up in a tree. Upon seeing Twilight and Spike, she called out in a soft voice to them.

"Twilight! Spike! Stay back or it will get you!"

"What?" The alicorn asked. The Pegasus, whom Hope identified as Fluttershy, pointed down to a large wolf, the size of a small cow, growling.

Hope immediately recognized the creature. She slowly set her pack down as she whispered to Twilight and Spike.

"Twilight. Spike. Leave this to me."

"Hope. What are you gonna do?" Twilight asked.

"Just watch." Hope whispered back.

Slowly, Hope reached into the bag and felt around until she felt the familiar feeling of feed.

"Hah. I knew it were here."

She then pulled out a small handful of monster feed that she packed just in case. Then, she slowly got up and made her way to the creature.

The creature spotted her and growled in a defensive stance at her. Hope cooed to it.

"Shh. Easy, boy. I'm not gonna hurt you."

The two ponies and the dragon watched with fear and concern for the girl. Hope stopped and slowly continued toward the creature until she was able to touch the creature on the forehead with her empty hand while feeding it the feed from the other hand.

The trio of onlookers watched in amazement as, after a few strokes, the creature's demeanor changed from frightening beast to gentle creature. Hope spoke softly to the creature.

"There, there. There's no need to be afraid. How would you like to be part of my farm? You'll have food and board in exchange for using your talents to help me with the farm and any other tasks needed, but what do you think?"

The creature thought about the idea for a moment before nodding in agreement. Hope smiled as she hugged the neck of her first monster for her farm.

"Great. How about 'Soren' for a name?"

The creature snorted in agreement as Hope stood up and waved to the Pegasus.

"It's ok, now. Soren was just disoriented, that's all."

The Pegasus slowly hovered to the ground as Twilight went to check up on her.

"Fluttershy! Are you ok? What happened?"

As Spike spoke to Hope in utter amazement at her ability to tame such a fearsome creature, Fluttershy told Twilight what happened.

"Well, I was checking up on the creatures here at the pasture because of the monster sightings when that monster came out of the Everfree Forest. It was thrashing about, so I decided to see how it was. That was when it chased me up the tree."

"What about your wings? Couldn't you fly away?"

The blush on Fluttershy's face told Twilight that she forgot with the events that had been happening. Sighing, Twilight spoke to her friend.

"Anyway, it's a good thing me and Spike were leading Hope this way to get to her farm."

She then looked at the Earthmate, who was petting her newly acquired monster as Spike was asking questions rapidly that Hope couldn't answer them at all.

After some coaxing on Twilight's part, Fluttershy approached the Earthmate and the monster that frightened her. Looking at the girl, Fluttershy spoke.

"Th-thank you f-for saving m-me. T-Twilight said that y-you are the Earthmate that the princesses said was coming."

Hope nodded.

"Yes. I am. My name is Hope." She then looked at Soren. "I suggest that you apologize to her, Soren. After all, we're all going to be neighbors."

Soren did as he was told, though he tried to act tough around the others. He looked at Fluttershy and lowered his head in apology. Once the apology was taken care of, Hope gathered her items and spoke.

"Well? Shall we move on? I'm sure Soren is looking forward to a good rest."

Soren nodded in agreement as he joined up with Hope.

But Twilight, Fluttershy, and Spike stopped her.

"But wait! How did you tame that mon…Soren?"

"You've calmed him faster than I could."

"That was amazing!"

Hope rubbed the back of her head, not familiar with this much praise.

'I wonder if this is how Papa felt when he tamed Woolt."

Woolt was a Wooly on her father's farm and the first monster tamed by him. She was told that he got a lot of praise when he tamed the sheep-like monster.

Seeing that the two ponies and the dragon were looking at her hand, Hope decided it was best to explain as Twilight led them to her farm, pointing to the glove that was still on her hand.

"In Rune, beginner farmers have special gloves called Friendship Gloves. When a person with a Friendship Glove pets a wild monster a few times, a mental link is made. That link enables the person to easily communicate with the wild monster without worry of attack. Once the monster is calm, the person asks them if they would like to join them or not. We keep the glove until we get good enough that we don't need them. You can thank my papa for that."

"Wow!" Spike exclaimed as the two ponies expressed amazement.

"That's incredible. So this Friendship Glove helps to calm the monster down so that you can ask." Fluttershy spoke.

"I must admit, that sounds interesting. I still need to learn more, but this time, your explanation will do." Twilight spoke.

It was then that Fluttershy remembered something.

"Oh! I have to go. I need to feed Angel and her friends. But it was nice meeting you, Hope. You too, Soren."

Hope and the others watched as Fluttershy took off before they continued.

Several minutes later, Hope slowed down as Twilight did near what appeared to be an apple farm.

"This is Sweet Apple Acres. The largest apple farm in all of Ponyville. Your farm is just past here, so the ponies that live here will be your neighbors."

"Really?"

Twilight nodded.

"Yes. Though you might have some competition if you're thinking of growing apples."

But before Hope could reply, the sound of someone hitting a tree followed by a thundering noise caught her ear.

"Did you hear that?"

Twilight and Spike took a moment to listen into the silence for a moment before the sound came again. Neither dragon nor alicorn could mistake that familiar sound.

"Oh, that's just another one of my friends harvesting the apples. How about we meet her?"

Curious as to what was making that sound and who her new neighbors were, Hope nodded in agreement as she told Soren to go on ahead. Once the wolf left in the direction of the new farm, Twilight and Spike lead Hope onto the Sweet Apple Acres farmland.

After passing the barn and house on the land, the trio came across a tan pony with green eyes, a blond mane and tail, both tied at the end. She was wearing a brown cowboy hat and had three red apples for a Cutie Mark. The pony was bucking one apple tree at a time, causing the falling apples to land in the large baskets below. To Hope's surprise, none of the apples have landed on the ground.

"Whoa. Talk about your precise accuracy."

That sentence caught the attention of the tan pony.

"Who said that?"

The tan pony looked up to find the three travelers at the edge of the orchard. She recognized the alicorn and the dragon. She spoke with a western accent.

"Why howdy, Twilight and Spike. What brings y'all to this neck of the pasture?"

Twilight gestured to Hope, who was standing at attention.

"Applejack, this is Hope. She's the Earthmate that the princesses sent and your new neighbor."

Hope gave a gentle wave as she smiled nervously.

"Hello. Nice to meet you-u-u-u-u—u!"

But Applejack took Hope's hand with a hoof and shook it like mad, smiling happily as she greeted her new neighbor, not caring what she looked like.

"Well howdy, neighbor! Welcome to Equestria, Ponyville, and Sweet Apple Acres. I'm Applejack. My kin and I own this here farm. We provide the majority of apples in Ponyville. I heard that y'all be taking over the farm at the edge of the Everfree Forest to deal with them nasty critters. Well, if you need a helping hoof, feel free to ask me and I'll be a comin'."

As soon as Applejack released her hand, Hope spoke while rubbing her arm.

"Uh…Thanks, neighbor."

Spike then jumped off of Twilight and, with excitement and free apples from Applejack to the rest, told the farmhorse about what happened to Fluttershy and what Hope did to help her. Applejack was amazed.

"Well color me surprised and call me Shocked. That's some technique you did. I might have to learn a thing or two from you to handle them critters. If what you've said about monsters being tamed is true, then me and my kin are sure happy to have you as a neighbor."

Hope scratched the back of her head with a chuckle.

"Well, I'm glad were gonna be good neighbors, too."

It was then that Twilight spoke.

"We've gotta go, Applejack. We've still have to get Hope to her farm and show her around Ponyville."

Understanding, Applejack nodded.

"Well alright! Y'all come back now, ya hear."

Applejack wave goodbye as the trio left for the farm.