Sunbeam scampered through the hallways.
The little filly mumbled her apologies as she dodged ponies throughout the castle, clutching a scroll of paper tightly in her mouth and a dozen more in the saddlebags across her midsection.
Her beige coat was nearly stained orange as she darted under another maid, earning another stream of berating murmurs as her light red mane almost tangled up the hooves of the maid carrying the Princess’ supper.
Finally, her door was in view. Sunbeam’s eyes shone with anticipation, doubling her speed as she made a beeline for the double doors. Almost. She was almost there!
Until a much larger pair of hooves stepped in front, causing Sunbeam’s attention to redirect itself as she hastily forced herself to stop, hooves skidding against the marble as she backpedaled in a desperate attempt to stop.
She almost had, too. Almost. Though it was with a soft bump of her muzzle against the large chest of the pony in front of her that caused the filly to look up into the disapproving eyes of her caretaker.
“Miss Streak,” the voice of the mare commanded, causing the filly’s eyes to cast downwards. “May I remind you that there is no running within the castle hallways. The first time you broke something on your way to Princess Twilight Sparkle has unfortunately not been the last.” Sunbeam frowned and looked up meekly. A dull grey mare with her violet and lavender mane done up in a bun glared pointedly at the filly. Her cutie mark bore a tome with a quill scribbling incomprehensible text down onto the pages, a symbol of her diligence and interest in record-keeping. Sunbeam looked down at her own flank which was, sadly, still bare.
“Y-yes, Miss Text.” Sunbeam padded at her scroll, looking anywhere but up while she expected another lecture on safety. Instead, a sigh rolled down from above, perking the filly unicorn’s ears up. “I trust you’ve done your assignments for the evening?” Sunbeam brightened up, grinning from ear to ear at Historical Text’s resigned face.
“Of course! I’ve got them all here! I even did next week’s, too!” The baker’s dozen of parchments flew from her saddlebags and into the air, all to the scrutinizing eye of the adult mare. A few moments passed, Sunbeam feeling more and more nervous as the time went on. She worried silently that she had done something wrong and would be sent back to do it again, something her caretaker had done on more than one occasion, and which would unfortunately dig into her time with the Princess.
Historical Text huffed, sending a despairing shiver down Sunbeam’s spine. “You forgot your name, again.” The filly drooped, expecting that she’d be made to do the entire assignment over again just to prove a point, or worse, detract points for such a simple mistake. Imagine her surprise when the adult unicorn summoned a quill and scribbled down the filly’s name in an elaborate cursive text in sharp contrast to the young Sunbeam’s somewhat awkward style.
Ms. Text sighed with a small smile as Sunbeam glowed enthusiasm before walking away. “Enjoy your lesson, Ms. Streak.” Ms. Streak then burst into the Princess’ study with a squeal.
The study was beyond robust, it could hardly be considered a study when the term for a Library was far more appropriate. It put the Canterlot Library to shame, much to Princess Luna’s annoyance. Years and years of gathering tomes and volumes from across the land led to easily the most complete source of information in Equestria, and perhaps even the world. Of course, all of them were neatly tucked away in exactly where they should be according to the Princess’ instructions. (A formula which she had designed herself and was done based upon whether the book in question was fiction or nonfiction, and from there the genre, the author, the publisher if there was any, the year it was written, the year it was revised, the year it became a series, the number of books in the series, whether the series was still continuing, etc.)
In the center of the library was a small ball of purple light, floating above a pedestal. Sunbeam Streak stepped up to the ball of light, smiling with excited wonder. She always loved this part.
“Archive?” she asked as though speaking to another pony, and the ball of light rose up a few inches, signalling that it was listening to her words. “Where can I find Princess Twilight Sparkle?”
The ball of light took a few moments to process the issue before floating away from the pedestal, low enough and at a leisurely pace so as to let the filly keep up with it. Sunbeam Streak giggled, this was a personal creation of Twilight’s, as it became somewhat necessary for those visiting her study to find her, or various books they needed to borrow.
After what seemed like days of walking (at least to the filly), they finally arrived to find Twilight Sparkle lounging on a large cushion and reading through an old Daring Do novel. She always seemed to like the classics best, Sunbeam noticed.
Princess Twilight looked up, smiling warmly at the filly. “Oh, there you are Sunbeam,” she spoke, nodding to Archive and watching as the ball of light shot back to the front of the library, “are you done with all of your assignments?”
Sunbeam nodded, “Yup yup! All of this week’s and next week’s, too! That way we can spend even more time together!” The filly grinned up at the Princess, though her expression faltered and fell as she saw Twilight’s sombre expression. “P-princess?” she spoke quietly, trotting up and snuggling to the Princess’ side. “Is everything okay?”
Twilight had grown over the years, accommodating to her Alicorn status. Though not quite as large as Princess Celestia, she was only perhaps a few inches short of her sister-in-law, Princess Cadence. Though she didn’t bear the regalia that her peers wore, she still bore the godlike presence, as well as the royal air that came with her. She looked down to the filly with a sad smile. “I’m sorry Sunbeam, but I won’t be able to make it to our lesson next week. I’ve made plans to be somewhere to see an old friend.”
The filly’s mood dropped like a rock, her eyes turning down. All that hard work for nothing! Sunbeam sniffled, eyes filling up with tears. “Oh, don’t be sad, my faithful student,” Twilight spoke, her voice like wind chimes in the autumn air, “I’m very proud of your diligence to work ahead.”
Seeing her student’s mood failing to pick up, the alicorn scoured her brain for ideas. One perked up, Twilight remembering something that she had wished to save for a rainy day. Well, today seemed like a rainy day for the filly, so she decided to pluck this apple from the tree and give it to her. After all, it seemed like appropriate timing.
“Say, Sunbeam,” the Princess nuzzled the filly and earning a surprised squeak from her, “How would you like to listen to a story?”
Sunbeam Streak took a U-turn with her mood, immediately brightening at her teacher’s words. “Oh! Oh! Is it the one about how Ms. Fluttershy tamed that dragon? Or about how you defeated Tirek? Or how about when you fought off the Changeling invasion?!”
Twilight chuckled, shaking her head as softly as her laughs. “No, it’s none of those. I’ve told you those tales before, but I promise this is an entirely new tale, one I know you haven’t heard before. It begins long before I defeated Tirek, before I defeated Sombra, and even before I became a Princess! It begins with my unexpected journey to a far, far away land, farther than any Equestrian at the time had even heard of. It was there that I met a friend to whom I owe so much to. The tale is not a short one, but I shall keep it concise.”
Sunbeam snuggled up to Twilight, getting comfortable.
A lanky teenager rolled up the flyer he had been glancing at, looking up at the castle in the distance with a confident smirk. He had travelled for several days in frustrated annoyance, partly due to the poor instructions he kept receiving and partly due to Triumph’s interest in the distraction of keeping his belly full. But finally he had made it to his destination. Soon, he would be able to take his chance on the world and claim his place in King Edward’s royal court!
The teenager patted his mount’s head. “Well Triumph, this looks like a good a place as any to camp for the night. Let’s rest up, we have a big day tomo--”
A flash from behind the young man and a young girl’s cry were reason enough for him to turn around in shock, but not enough from him to do it fast enough. Something soared from behind and slammed into him, sending him toppling forward off his large, fuzzy mount and into the hillside below.
“Ow!--oh!--ouch!--yow!--ack!--Watch it!”
Down and down the two tumbled, rolling through bushes and dirt and all the wonderful scenery of nature when viewed from afar. Up close and plummeting towards at uncontrollable velocities made them far less appealing. The teenager could’ve sworn he caught fleeting glimpses of lavender and indigo in his field of view as he rolled down the chasm, crashing through foliage and rubble alike before finally splatting face first into a pool of mud at the bottom.
With a grunt of pain, the teenager propped himself up on his hands only to only to find his face planted in the mud once more as a solid weight slammed into his back. “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry!” the voice of a young girl caught his ears. The adventurer’s first thought was to introduce himself politely to the young damsel, until he remembered that this very same damsel crashed into him and sent him careening down a cliff. The weight finally got off of his back, and he propped himself up once more to clean the mud of his face. “It’s fine, really. Just an accident, but I’d appreciate it if you...you…”
The young man blinked, not really sure of what he saw. Standing before him was a horse, which by itself was rather weird by itself since most folks didn’t ride horses in this part of the world. Stranger was that it was purple, various shades of purple, in fact, and with a spiraling horn at the top of its forehead. Though, strangest of all was the fact that it was staring right back, just as equally shocked.
“GAH!” the teenager and the horse shouted at once. The young man stood up and tried to hastily backpedal, but through the soaked and soft ground he lost his footing quickly and toppled down onto his rear end.
The horse shrieked and attempted to do the same, only instead of trying to run, she forced her eyes shut and tilted her head down. A few sparks shot from her extended horn, though beyond a small light show nothing else happened. She panicked, looking up at her horn in horror as she tried whatever it was again, only a few more sparks of light firing off this time.
Meanwhile the boy was scrambling back even more, kicking up mud and spinning around as he stood back up to sprint away. His efforts proved to have little success though, as he quickly found himself face first into the cliff wall. The cacophony caused by him crashing into the rock wall shook the horse out of her run-or-run-faster state, staring up as the boy slowly peeled away and collapsed back into the mud once more.
“...ow.” A painful groan came from the boy’s direction, the horse feeling her fear shift and mold into curiosity as she slowly approached the boy.
“Erm. Hello…?” she spoke, perhaps putting her soft-spoken friend to shame in terms of how timid she sounded. “Are...are you okay?”
“Ugh...I don’t think so.” He rubbed his eyes and sat up, massaging the back of his head, “I could’ve sworn I just saw a purple horse. Weirder was that I’m pretty sure it spoke. But that can’t be right, horses don’t talk. I mean, they’re not smart enough to talk, right?”
“Hey! I take offense to that!” The boy spun around, eyes shooting wide as she shot up and planted his back to the wall, scrunching up his shoulders in an attempt to melt through the rock wall in some way. The horse raised an interrogating eyebrow, glaring at the strange bipedal creature plastering himself to the stone face. “What?”
The pony sized up the creature, examining him with scrutinizing eyes. He (or at least she assumed it was a he judging by the tone of his voice) was long and lanky, enough for her to think he was ill fed or perhaps that was just the way his kind were. His muzzle, if it could even be called that, didn’t slope upwards in an arcing manner but rather towards the ground in a hooking manner.
Notably strange was the fact that the creature wore something over almost his entire body, like some form of second skin. Clothing, perhaps? Around his midsection was what looked like some kind of sack, a bit dirty and covered in mud from the recent fall. A set of faded blue tubes held loosely around his lower limbs, and a pair of well-travelled boots wrapped closely around his hooves. At least she assumed they were boots and assumed they were hooves, from what she could tell.
A red, flowing cape was planted back against the face of the earth wall, and if one would look closely enough numerous pouches and crevasses could be seen within the folds. Lastly, upon the creature’s shocked, fear-stricken head was a blue cap, one which the horse had seen her fashion-designing friend make some time ago. A single red feather was held in the side, perhaps a lucky charm or memento of some sort.
“You...you can talk…?!” the bipedal creature looked terrified at the small purple horse, who barely came halfway up his thigh. Said horse harrumphed, thoroughly displeased.
“Of course I can talk. All ponies can talk!” she reprimanded him, pointing a stubby lavender hoof towards him, “what I want to know is what the hay are you?”
The creature felts a bit of his fear subside to be replaced by curious intrigue. He tilted his head to the side a tad, giving the pony a look one would give to an offering of something for free. “Wait. Did you just say…’what the hay’? Hay. As in the stuff cows and horses eat?”
It was the horse’s turn to give him the same look. “Well...yeah, I suppose. But I’m not a horse. Horses are a completely different genus altogether. I’m a pony!”
“A...pony.” The creature lowered his arms back down to his sides, loosening his grip on the understanding of all logical things for a moment. “A...pony.”
She nodded, going back to her accusatory gaze once more. “Yes, I’m a pony. Now what are you?”
The creature looked down at himself, not really sure what to describe himself as. “Uh...well, I’m a teenager!” The sides of his cheeks pulled up, pointing a finger upwards as he smiled at the prospect of a topic he could talk about. “I just had a birthday a few weeks ago, actually! It’s because I was old enough that mom said it was okay for me to go out and explore the world for myself. Well,” he stopped, scratching his beardless chin, “actually, it was more like I begged her a thousand times to let me go and she finally said yes. But! Uh, if anyone asks, just tell them I was old enough.”
The pony blinked, feeling all disposition of fear vanish into a cloud of smoke. “You...no, wait, that’s not what I meant.” The teenager dropped his hand, looking confused, “I meant what kind of species are you? I’ve never seen one of your kind before.”
“Oh…” the teen thought for a moment, “...oh, OH! Okay, I’m a human! At least I’m pretty sure I am. That’s what people seem to think of me as, anyways.”
“Wait, a human?”
Twilight paused as she was about to continue, looking down towards her faithful student with a small smile. “Yes, a human.” She opened her mouth to continue before being cut off once more.
“What the hay is a human?” Sunshine interrupted, a defeated sigh escaping from Twilight’s mouth. A flare of magic from her horn and a heavy tome from a nearby shelf zooms over and opens to the exact page describing the physiology of a human. Sunshine looked on with awe, seemingly more fascinated with the new species than Twilight’s story.
“They’re kind of like Minotaur, but with less hair and more skin,” Twilight explained, waiting a few moments to let Sunshine absorb the new information. She waited a little longer than usual, then frowned once she realized her student was now getting sucked into a new book.
The Princess closed up the tome, much to the dismay of her student, and sent it back to where it belonged. “Well, now you understand what a human is, correct?” A nod in reply. “Good. Now then, where was I? Ah yes…”
“A...human?” The horse responded, trotting up a little closer, close enough to start sniffing the human’s pants. He seemed a little nervous, though calm enough that he didn’t move. That is, until the horse started sniffing his behind his knees curiously.
“H-hey, that tickles!” he squirmed away, holding his hand behind his back. The quadruped tapped her chin.
“Hm. Ticklish near the joint regions…” she hummed, making the biped nervous again. He scratched the back of his neck, not sure what to really say.
It was then that the horse blinked, suddenly realizing her fault. “Oh, gosh! I’m so sorry, I don’t think I’ve introduced myself yet!” She grinned sheepishly, “My name is Twilight Sparkle, faithful student of her excellence, Princess Celestia.”
“T...Twi…?” The teenager seemed to only get more and more confused as this exchange went on. “Twilight...Sparkle…? That’s an odd name.”
Twilight rolled her eyes, “Well maybe I should get your name first so we can compare.”
The teen blinked, smiling with a shy smile and putting a proud fist to his chest. “Graham. Graham is my name.”
“Graham…?”
“Yes, Graham was his name. Is, actually.” Twilight hummed, feeling her student’s gaze up at her. “I doubt you remember this, but you’ve actually met him once. It was while you were very young, back when we found you on the front step into the castle. He had come to visit for some negotiations of a sort when you had popped up on the doorstep to our castle! I suppose I have him to thank for giving you a name, then. It was his idea, or rather, he was the one who pointed out a good idea.”
Sunshine looked on in wonder, thinking distantly about the human who had given her her identity. “Woooaaah...do you think I’ll ever meet him again?”
Twilight smiled, looking off in another direction knowingly. “Oh, he drops on by every few years for a formal hello, though he usually stays in Canterlot for those meetings.” Sunshine visibly drooped. “But I can take you with me to see him next time, if you’d like.” The filly beamed, nodding vigorously at the prospect. “Very well. Now then…”
“Graham, is it?” Twilight tilted her head to the side. “Not Graham Cracker, or anything? Just Graham?” She tittered about with the name, a little confused.
Graham looked a bit despondent. “Well, no, just Graham. Well, actually that’s what my grandmother used to call me back when I was very little.” He chuckled, albeit shakily, “her cute little Graham Cracker, that’s what she always said.”
The pony hummed and shrugged. “Well then, now that that’s over with, do you mind telling me where I am? I’m afraid I might be a bit lost.”
“Oh, here?” Graham brightened back up to a bit of cheer once more, “Well, this here is…” he looked up and around, eventually zeroing in on a sign just behind Twilight, “...a road in the Kingdom of Daventry, to be exact. Well, at least I think it is. This is actually my first time here in Daventry,” he pouted, looking off to the east, “...though I probably would be sure of that if that merchant didn’t keep giving me bad directions.”
Twilight wilted, her ears flopping backwards. “Daventry? Um...that wouldn’t happen to be anywhere near Equestria, would it?”
The young man turned his head back to Twilight, humming and knitting his eyebrows. “Equestria...Equestria...sorry, I don’t think I’ve heard of that place. Oh!” His eyes shimmered, interested in the idea of discovering somewhere new. “Does it have more ponies like you? Is it nice? Does it have those little pastries with the cream filling on the inside that are just so buttery and delicious?”
Twilight shook her head, mane bobbing around. “Oh, sorry to bother you, then.” She turned to the East and began walking away. Graham’s heart split down the middle, sorry to see the pony’s mood drop.
“W-wait, hold on!” He held an arm outwards, pulling back up the attention of Twilight, “I haven’t been exploring much so I don’t know much about this Equestria or even Daventry for that matter. But I bet someone in Daventry knows! I’m sure if we head into the town that isn’t far from here, we can ask somebody who knows something.”
The unicorn perked up, lifting her head up and swinging her tail side to side. “Oh, can we? Perfect! Do you mind if I come with you? I’d prefer not to travel alone.”
Graham grinned, bobbing his head up and down with the glee of a preschooler who had just made a new friend. Of which he just had. “Excellent! Now, le--” he paused, turning his head to the side in shock which quickly became fear. Twilight frowned, padding forward slowly in worry.
“Graham? Is everyth--” she didn’t receive an answer, the boy was sprinting off to the west before she could finish.
Author's Note
First chapter of the first story I'm publishing here on Fimfiction. Woo!
Let me know what you think of the tone and plot of the story. And any spelling or grammatical errors, too, thanks.
