In the Time Before

The sun and the moon rested perfectly on the opposite ends of the horizon, creating a constant state of twilight. The tree’s green leaves littered the 5 branches that extended from its center. The tree’s bark was as brown as any other tree. However, what was unusual about the tree was the gemstones that were in the tree’s branches. On the branch closest to the ground on the left, there was a large crystal that took up most of the bark circle that surrounded it. The shape of the crystal was that of a butterfly and its color was pink. On the next branch, there was a balloon with a light blue color. The top branch had a crystal in the shape of a large lightning bolt that was colored red. The other branch that sat next to it, had a diamond shaped gemstone that shined dark purple in the twilight. The last branch, which was on the far right side of the tree, had a gem the shape of a large orange apple. As beautiful as all the crystals were, none shined as brightly as the one in the center of the tree. It was a stunning light purple star that had its 6 points stretched across most of the center of the tree. On the trunk of the tree right below the star, there was a sun and a moon that had been ingrained into the bark. This tree was the proud ruler that controlled all of the natural world.

One day, this tree created a little foal. He had a pure green body that was the same color as bright new leaves on a tree. His mane was a deep navy blue. The tree had placed these features on him intentionally. The green was to blend in with the forest and the mane was meant to hide the pony in the shadows of the forest. The foal also had wings and a horn just as the tree intended. He also had golden eyes and his muzzle was shorter than most colts. These features weren’t ones the tree had made. They simply came into being on their own.

The little pony, was puzzled by his new and sudden existence. He looked around in awe at his surroundings. The tree was standing in the middle of a clearing in a forest. There was only a small gap between the tree and the forest itself.

After looking at his surroundings, he started examining himself. He noticed that his body’s color was unbroken except for a spot on his rump. His rump had the identical image of the upper part of the tree that stood in front of him.

The tree spoke, but only the foal could hear him. “Young foal,” The tree spoke in a mystical voice. “I must teach you all that you need to know to fulfill your duty.”

The young pony was puzzled but he didn’t know how to speak back to the great tree.

The tree raised the little pony for 200 years. During this time, the tree taught him how to use magic like a Unicorn, how to fly like a Pegasus and how to use his strength like an Earth pony. However, over time the foal grew to resent the tree. The tree commanded him to do tasks like it owned him.

One day, out of rage and curiosity, the pony left the tree and went out to see the world. Despite the fact that he had lived for 200 years, he was still a young colt. He was like a pony who just finished filly school going off on his own. He went through the forest where he often worked in the past.

A while after the pony left the tree, he found another clearing. This clearing was filled with green grass a mile wide and was surrounded by the forest. Inside the clearing, there was a small pony town. The town had only a few buildings scattered around. The houses were made of wood from the nearby forest. There were only two buildings with standout features. There was a building at the edge of town that had a second story with no walls on it and a large torch inside the second story. The other building was in the center of town and it was only slightly bigger than the rest. All the buildings were placed on dirt foundations with dirt paths.

He started trotting through the clearing to the town. On his way, he saw a stream but paid it no mind. While going through the clearing he thought he saw something, but it ran off before he could get a good look at it. When he got into the town, he saw a small crowd of ponies around one pony. The crowd consisted of Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth ponies. However, there were no ponies like him with wings and a horn.

As he approached, the pony in front quickly darted into the crowd and he couldn’t identify him from the rest. He received looks of confusion and awe from the ponies. No pony dared talk to the outsider because he was so different from them. However, there was one unicorn who tried her luck.

“Hello” The pony said as she came to greet him from the crowd. She was slightly taller than him but she didn’t have wings like he did. She had a purple colored coat and an orange mane. Her eyes were a deep silver in a sea of white. She had a picture on her rump just like he did but the picture was of several silver dust-like particles in a crescent shape. Ponies often made fun of her in filly school because her special talent was useless. Even now, many ponies of the town still ignored her because she couldn’t do anything to help the town. “Where are you from?” she asked

The young pony didn’t speak at first. He was a little uncomfortable around other ponies. “From the forest I guess.”

The ponies were curious about the newcomer but they still kept their distance from this green and blue pony with a horn and wings.

“Well…what’s your name?” she said realizing the mistake she made by not asking this first. She couldn’t practice talking much since the town didn’t allow her to socialize with any pony.

“My name?” He said.

“Yes, your name.”

He had never even heard the word “name” before in all of his 200 year life. “What’s a…name?” he said searching his memory for the meaning.

Being the intelligent pony that she was, she knew at that moment that this pony had never seen another pony in his life. “Well uhm…” She said trying to think of how to describe a name. “A name is what we use to describe ourselves…individually? My name, for example, is Twinkle Sparkles. I assume you don’t have a name?”

“No…” said the unnamed pony “How do I get one?” He said, unsure of what the other ponies thought of his lack of a name.

Twinkle chuckled “You silly.” She said “You can’t get one, you are given one. Usually by your parents.” She paused. “I guess you don’t have parents either.”

“What are…parents?” The crowd started to whisper.

The crowd that surrounded them grew until almost all of the town’s residents were part of it. When he looked over, he could see there were 23 ponies in the crowd. The town was small but it was one of the largest pony towns in the world at that time.

“Figured you didn’t know.” She sighed “Parents are ponies who create you. Usually a mare and a colt make up your parents.”

He thought about the tree and realized that being created by a tree wasn’t normal around here. To avoid further murmurs from the crowd, he spoke. “I…don’t have parents.”

“Thought so” she said startling him a bit with her response. “Come on, I’ll show you around town.”

As the two started trotting, the crowd didn’t want to follow and it dissipated soon after they left.

“This is where we all live.” She said pointing to the houses around her. “We don’t have enough homes for everyone, but we are trying to build more.”

As they trotted, the green pony marveled at the fact that ponies lived in houses made of wood. He had always lived in the woods under the tree where it was open all the time. Confining himself to a small wooden house seemed…tight to him.

They continued moving. They came to the center of town where there was a wooden building that was slightly bigger than the rest.

“This is the town hall.” Twinkle said “we conduct meetings here once a week. In these meetings, we talk about the current state of the town and what we will do with the town in the future.”

He looked at it in awe. They continued moving. They came to a small market place where only 3 ponies were present. One was working a cart filled with a small assortment of food. The other two ponies looked over the food deciding what to get.

“This is the market. This is where we take all our items that we gather to sell them to our fellow pon…wait…” she examined the two ponies at the stand.

“Let’s get out of here. There is a lot more of the town I have yet to show you.” She was pushing the pony along to get him to move but it was too late. The two ponies who were looking at the food turned their heads toward Twinkle.

They moved faster toward her than she could push the green pony.

A colt's voice called out to them. “Tink did you use your magic to force some pony to be with you?”

The pair was right in front of them now. One was a tall light blue earth pony, with aqua green mane and an axe mark. The other was a mare that was a little shorter than the stallion but still tall for a pony. She had a crimson purple coat, yellow mane and had a pen and paper mark. She was an earth pony just like the colt next to her. The mare spoke. “Honestly, is that anyway to greet a new pony? Although I wouldn’t put it past her.”

The green pony tried to stay out of the conversation.

Twinkle sighed and introduced the two ponies to her visitor. While pointing to the colt she said “This is Chop Block and this” she pointed to the mare “is Quillpaps Sparkles. They’re my parents.”

“Right you are Tink.” Chop said using the nick name that all the bully’s at Twinkles school used. “So that funny little pony there is yours? You made it?”

Quillpaps punched Chop in the side. “Oww!” He said. She whispered in Chop’s ear “I know she’s odd but there is no need to be rude.” Although the two earth ponies did love their daughter, they would have quickly traded her for another earth pony like them.

Twinkle became flustered. “I didn’t make him! He came to town today and I was just showing him around!”

“Ha-ha. Yeah sure Tink.” Said Chop in a sarcastic voice. “No one has ever come from outside the village.”

The pony thought to say something but when he looked at Twinkle in something close to a rage, he thought that it was best to say nothing.

“I am not making this up!” Twinkle said quite angrily. “He just came into town today. You can ask any pony. They were there when we met.” She had calmed down her voice a bit.

“We have to get back to the house to drop off our groceries.” Said Twinkle's mother practically pushing the colt. “See you at the house Twinkle.”

They trotted off. However, the two ponies could hear the pair arguing once they were out of sight. Twinkle spoke before the other pony could.

“Let’s get moving.”

“But…” He decided that it was best not to bring up the awkward conversation that just happened.

The two ponies arrived at the edge of town. They stood in front of the only open two story building in the town. The second floor had no walls and there was a giant torch in the middle.

“This is the school house” Twinkle said

“Why is there a…torch in the middle of the second floor?” The green pony asked questioningly.

“That torch tells all the kids to come to school. Class has started. Now let’s go. This place has bad memories.” She recalled all the teasing from the students and her parents didn’t do anything about it, nor did the teacher for that matter.

They continued trotting without a word spoken between them. As they walked, he found they had left the village and were at the stream he saw earlier on his trot into town. The stream looked like it had no beginning or end.

“The last stop on our tour of the town is our stream. It’s where we get our water from.”

He bent down to examine the water. The current was moving pretty fast. He felt like if he fell in he would be swept away by the current.

“Well don’t be shy. Take a drink.”

The pony looked at her in question. “Drink?”

He hadn’t drunken anything except for the one time that the tree told him to drink some of it’s sap after he had used all of his magic trying to do a spell. It tasted terrible but it immediately replenished all the magic he had lost doing the spell.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t drunk anything before?” Twinkle asked.

“Uhm…ok.” The green pony said puzzled at the phrase.

“I was being sarcastic.” She said.

“Uh…” he was about to say something when Twinkle cut him off.

“Just drink the water.” She said with irritation.

Despite her irritation, she found that her curiosity was getting the better of her.

He ducked his head into the water and sucked up the water as he had done with the tree’s sap. He found the water felt fresh and tasted rejuvenating, unlike the sap. His small feeling of bliss was interrupted by Twinkles question.

“What’s your Cutie Mark?”

He looked up in confusion. “My what?”

She sighed again at the thought of another explanation today. “A Cutie Mark is the special talent that all ponies have and it’s shown on your flank. Like mine.” She pointed to the particles on her flank. “See? This is my Cutie Mark. It represents my special talent. Magic. However, yours looks like uh…” She glared intently at the image on his flank. “Tree with gemstones in it. What does it mean?”

He looked at his cutie mark. “Uh… I don’t know. It has always been there…”

“Wait!” She cut him off. “You had your Cutie Mark your entire life?!”

“Yeah…” He spoke uneasily “Isn’t that normal?”

“No!” she said in astonishment. “Cutie Marks are something you have to find on your own. They aren’t just given to you.”

“It…was that way for me. Ever since I woke up…I have had this mark.”

She became even more confused with this pony. She thought to herself: He doesn’t have a name, he doesn’t have parents, he has never drunk water before, he has had his Cutie Mark for as long as he can remember and he woke up in… she stopped her thoughts. That’s it! He doesn’t remember anything because he has lost his memory. Now I just need to know where he woke up and for how long he has been wandering around.

Twinkle spoke “This is the end of the tour. Why don’t we take a little trot around?”

“Sure” he said uncertainly.

They started moving. She continued talking “I have told you a lot about me why don’t you tell me a little about you? Where are you from?”

“From the forest.” He said in a calm voice.

“I know that, but where exactly? What was the last place you remember?”

He realized that she was trying to figure him out but decided that there was no harm in telling her. “It’s hard to describe. I can show you if you like.”

“Yes” She took the opportunity while it lasted.

“Well then,” the green pony said “let’s go to the forest.”