A Tale worth Telling (A series)

  Lemon tilted her head watching her reflection do the same. Her counterpart distorted as she moved her attention towards a black silluate in the corner. She quickly turned around but the living room window showed little sign of the figure she had seen in the mirror-or at least what she thought she’d seen.

She sighed before heading off to make the customary pot of tea. “Does it make sense,” she spoke teleporting the kettle over to the stove with that blank, half-open-eyed expression. “That I moved to a creepy town without telling any pony because no pony here would make fun of me living in a creepy town because they live here too.” The kettle began to whistle; she gripped it in magic and poured herself a cup before inserting a tea bag then heading to the living room coach.

“If you move to a ghost town does that say something significant about you or does the fact that you moved to a ghost town to wonder such a thing say something else entirely.” She set her steaming cup on the side table before laying on the coach, hugging a pillow as she tended to do.

The doorbell rings.

Thump

Lemonberry was on the floor, her pet squirrel, Walnut staring at her worryingly from a safe distance.

.“Celestia”, she murmurs under her breath, cautiously making her way to the door and opening it. The doorbell ringing was as rare as seeing a pony out on the streets.Not seeing any pony at the entrance, she peaked further before fully stepping outside. Walking through the fog, she wasn’t sure whether to flee back inside and pack her bags or to continue investigating. She continued to walk into oblivion, obviously.

“Lemonberry?” A familiar voice spoke in the darkness, two figures nearing the stunned mare.

“Wildflower?” Lemonberry looked at the Orange-coated mare, a pony she had met just a few months ago on her train ride towards the town. She was surprised to see her again, and accompanied by a peach-coated stallion next to her.

~     Something else entirely, not the same story line. This is not part of the story, stop it. It really isn’t. No, I’m not joking. Sto-stop thinking it’s the same story, it’s not! Got it? OK.   ~

“Lemon Darling, don’t hang on the tapestry.” Seamist spoke to her daughter, Lemonberry.Lemon Darling was what most ponies called her, so the name stood despite Lemonberry’s countless protests.

“Lemonberry, mom!” she screamed across the room while sliding down the curtain. “Lemonberry!” she repeated, stomping her hoofs before bucking the wall for good measure.

Seamist looked away from her vanity mirror, perfect sky blue eyes glaring scoldingly at her filly. “Lemonberry, such behavior is not fitting for a lady your age!”

The blue filly rolled her eyes, secretly happy to have provoked her mother to use her real name. A new irritation immediately replaced the last, “I’m just a filly. How do you suppose I should act?” she reminded her mother, it seemed to Lemonberry that she required it as she often expected the filly to follow through multiple difficult tasks across the house.

“Like a mare,” her mother spoke looking back at her mirror before smiling “and a noble”

The grouchy Pegasus stomped over to the coach where she plotted down, crossing her hooves as she had (to her annoyance) gotten into the habit of doing. “Well, if I’m going to be a noble then I won’t bother to spend time with the peasants.” She ended stubbornly.

A pretty sigh escaped her mother’s lips before she graced out the front door. “Don’t bother to show anyway, we may have sacrificed the skies for you but not the earth.”

Seamist shut the door but not before quickly murmuring, although not to the escape of Lemonberry’s ears “Ponies don’t take kindly to disagreeable foals.”

She didn’t flinch at her mother’s words; nothing could wound her concrete heart. She didn’t care for the filthy desert Indians and neither for her parent’s festivities. She couldn’t care less if they never came back.

If only she’d known it was the last time she would speak to either of them.

The room began to shake, the vanity mirror falling first before her mother’s many expensive perfumes came crashing to the ground. Trembling Pearl necklaces came rolling against Lemonberry’s hooves. She stepped back, stunned by the unearthly phenomenon. The massive wardrobe inclined over the foal, its shadow swallowing her, an echo of what might be soon to come. She quickly darted under the bed for protection. Sure enough, the wardrobe fell to the ground with a loud boom, similar to the sounds she heard distantly throughout the house.

Dust began to depart from the roof; she desperately hoped it wouldn’t collapse.

The moment seemed to last forever, the never-ending roar of movement hurling several objects under the bed with her. It seemed impossible within the chaos but at one point, the filly collapsed.

Some Time Later

A grey train’s whistle blew loudly for attention, releasing a cloud of black smoke. The noise blocked countless of ponies chattering and to her relief the taunting she received from the other orphan foals. But soon the train departed, leaving her with the snooty foals and their lame chants.

“Sour lemon in my mouth

Fowl taste get out!

I’ll cut a berry, oh so sweat

And get your taste right out!”

The foals laughed as they were hushed by the adult ponies.

Lemon Berry shot poison darts in their direction, trying to ignore the glances she got from several adults.

“Cinnamon Twist” a grown stallion in a waist coat called out into a speaker.

She watched as a ponytailed filly galloped happily up to her grandparents, embracing them in a tight hug. The filly’s grandmother caught Lemon Berry eyes which she quickly averted to the floor.

Several hours passed in a similar fashion, ponies would get their names called out through the speaker and they would run towards their close or distant relatives.

The sky grew dark and few ponies where left in the crowd. Their names were called. Lemon Berry began to wonder if she would ever get picked up.

She sat on an old bench once her legs began to tire, hearing the speaker stallion talk with another pony.

“Yes, very unfortunate what happened in the Sadlearabia…but at least the little ponies are with family now.”

….

“No, no one knows why it happened. I hear word that Celestia has her finest scientist looking into the event…hopefully they find a good explanation; there hasn’t been an earthquake in Equestrian for quite some time. It startled a lot of ponies; some didn’t even know what an earthquake was until today!”

….

“Alright, I think I’ll clock out soon myself…just as soon as this last filly gets picked up.”