Chapter 1: Journey
Silence.
The rays of the afternoon sun slowly baked the emerald-green fields of Equestria. A lone bumblebee docked itself onto a hot-white lily, picking up a delivery of pollen. Two fawns were playing a game of tag with each other. A small group of monarch butterflies perched themselves atop a bouquet of vividly colored flowers. The trees slowly danced to the silent melody sung by the wind.
An aggravating creak and crackle of wood resonated through the air. Silence was broken. In an instant the once lively part of the woods became nothing but a quiet picture of grass and trees; winged insects broke off into a retreat, the fawns ran home to their mothers, and small foragers dived into their holes.
Clack
Two stallions, both unicorns, were hauling a cart down a forest path. One was dressed in a coat of blue-grey hair, adorned a nicely combed mane atop his head, and has a camera plastered on his flank. The other dons both a black mane and coat, the mane having a darker shade. A star is pictured on his flank. Their names are Avant Garde and Night Sky.
Clack
Avant is a kind stallion, but one may find his ramblings of science and conversations with himself unsettling. He believes there are multiple ponies in his head, and supposedly is able to quickly gather information using all of them to observe his surroundings at the same time. Even though this may seem like a superb ability, schizophrenia and insanity come with it.
Clack
Night is a socially awkward stallion who is knowledged in astronomy. He doesn't have many friends. In fact, the only pony he would call a friend is Avant. Although he is terrible in common vanity spells, he is skilled in combat spells. He'd make a valuable asset to a team, being skilled at knowing navigation and battle magic, but lacks the ability to socialize and work with other ponies. Most of the work he does are solo jobs. He also doesn't like attention, and would rather have his face inside of a book rather than in front of another pony.
CLACK
Both Avant and Night were madly irritated by the clack of the wood every time the right wheel made a full rotation. The cart wasn't the best out there. In fact, one could call it one of the worst out there. Still, it was barely strong enough to hold the two unicorn's stuff, but it was enough.
Clack
Night glared back at the cart. "Ivan, why is that cart making such a terrible noise!?" His voice was gentle, almost a whisper. "Ivan" was the nickname Night gave to Avant.
Avant gave a sharp exhale. "I have nooooooooooo ideaaaaaaaaa, you're the one who bought it." His voice was slightly deep and coarse, but kind and gentle at the same time.
Clack
Night frowned. "Okay, fine, maybe it is my fault for getting a terrible cart, but at least it was cheap and can hold our stuff in it. You should be lucky it even can hold your stuff in it." They both looked back. More than sixty five percent of the contents of the cart was Avant's belongings and photography gear. The rest consisted of Night's belongings, furniture, dishes and whatnot.
Clack
Avant cracked his neck. "Hey, Night, are we even getting close to Ponyville? We've been walking for hours, and this cart's getting really, really, really heavy." Avant rarely whined, but he never really had a stable personality.
Night made a quick observation of the darkening sky. "According the position of the stars we should be getting close, maybe another half and hour or so. We could stop and rest for now if you want."
Avant smiled and chuckled as they let down the cart. "Yes, let's."
They parked their cart behind a wide tree so that any passersby wouldn't be able to see it, and laid some blankets in a ditch. Quickly, they fell into a light slumber.
Three hours had passed.
Night had awoke and took a long, noisy breath from his nostrils. "Ivan, its time to get moving again." He shook Avant.
"But I don't want to get moving again, we can get there tomorrow," Ivan moaned, face sill buried in his pillow.
"Get up, Ivan."
Avant turned around, facing Night. "Nope."
"Now."
"No."
Night rolled his eyes. "Oh, Ivan, I've been meaning to show you this: a new flashy light thingy for your cameras."
As Night Sky said that a very bright light shot from his horn and down into Avant's face.
"GAAAAAAAAAH, my eyes! I can't see!" Avant flailed his front hooves around, hoping to get revenge on Night.
"Heh, I call it flare. Anyway, relax, it will wear off, but at least it got you up." Night chuckled and helped Avant up. He looked at the path ahead. "We need to keep moving if we want to get there, help me pull this cart will you?"
Avant's vision was clearing up. "Alright, fine." The two locked themselves into the cart and slowly started to trudge along the road.
The next three hours or so were filled with the sound of CLANK, clack, and more CLANK.
Avant looked up from his hooves and noticed some buildings and a dim yellow aura in the horizon. "Night, look! Ponyville!"
Night sighed in relief. "Ugh, finally my hooves are killing me. You have the directions to our home right? And I trust you have the key to the house?" He looked at Avant, eyebrow raised.
Avant rustled through his saddlebag. "Um, yeah I got them right here." He rapidly blinked for a bit and squinted at a small piece of paper. "It's, uh, 2546 Ponyville Lane"
Night nodded and stopped walking. "I think we should set up camp here on the outskirts of town. Our cart makes alot of noise and seeing how it's two in the morning, we might disturb somepony's sleep."
The cart clanked, as if to say, "You don't say?"
"I see what you mean." Avant walked over to the cart. "I'll set up the stuff."
The two unicorns set up their sleeping equiptment and talked for a while, but then decided they needed to sleep.
Night closed his eyes and thought to himself, Gosh, I wonder what Ponyville will be like, kinda nervous. I wonder what Ivan's thinking. I'm not even sure if he thinks at all. Night realized his pillow was a rock.
Rocks are hard.
Night sat up and rubbed the back of his head. "OW! What the- why is my pillow a rock!?" Night looked around.
Avant.
Night scowled. "IVAN!"
Avant groaned as he awoke. "Yes, Night?"
"Where is my pillow!?"
"I don't know," Avant sarcastically remarked.
Night's scowl became a mischievous smirk. "Huh. You know, what? I wanna cast a spell!"
Avant's eyes shot wide open. "Wha- wait, no, no please! Here, take your pillow, just PLEASE don't cast flare!" Avant tossed Night's pillow to him and shielded his eyes.
Night caught the pillow mid-flight. "Thanks."
Just then, a familiar light beamed from Night's horn and into the unprepared pony's eyes.
"SWEET CELESTIA , MY EYES! MY EYES! IT BURNS!" Kneeling in the ground, Avant screamed as he furiously blinked and rubbed his eyes.
Night rolled himself in a more comfortable position. "I'll bet it does, now go to sleep."
Night sighed in his mind. I hope things will go well when we get to Ponyville. Finally, sleep took over the two unicorns and they both drifted off into a quiet slumber.
Six thirty in the morning. Most ponies were still fast asleep. The wind seemed sleepy too; only a few trees waved to say their hellos to it. The frail fingers of a chilling fog caressed the buildings and rolling hills around Ponyville. Baby birds, still not as extravagantly dressed as their parents, sang "Good morning!" to their families. The clip-clop of a blue-gray pony's hooves could be heard wandering the town. His conversations with himself could be heard too.
Avant was still adjusting to the atmosphere of Ponyville. For most of his life he woke up to the rumblings of huge carts being towed by stallions four times as strong as he, the blares of the trains departing and entering the nearby train station, and the smell of the coal being burned in the factories whose mass-produced goods were in high demand.
Avant was reciting formulas of various potions and poetry from one of his mother's books aloud.
A little too loud.
"Hey! Keep it down would ya? Most ponies around here are still sleeping," a middle-aged mare behind him hushed with a strict tone. Avant turned around and scratched the back of his mane. "Sorry."
"Thanks." The mare continued her morning walk and disappeared around the corner. Avant continued his walk as well, keeping his thoughts in his head.
Five minutes passed. Avant found his house. The numbers two, five, four and six were etched above the door. "Here we are," Avant sighed. He reached in his saddlebags for the key.
It wasn't there.
He levitated the bags in front of him, frantically using both hooves in a desperate search for the key. He found snacks, trinkets, and twenty bits, but no house key. "Aha!" Avant exclaimed. He'd remembered where the key was: in a small steel box. A box he had slipped in Nights saddlebags. Avant groaned in frustration and banged his head against the door. He walked back to the improvised camp site he and his friend made, head hung low.
Night woke up to the pleasant sunlight and warm forest breeze. Shortly after he got up he noticed that Avant was missing, so he called out to him and got no response, he called again, still no response.
"Strange," Night mummered to himself.
As Night went through the cart to get some of his belongings, he noticed the box which held the key was inside, but not the paper with the house's address.
"So, he broke off to go find the house, but he forgot the key," Night quietly chuckled to himself. "I'll have some time before he gets back."
After rumaging through his stuff Night found his spell book, picked it up and started to read it while waiting for this rather strange companion. He'd found spells like teleportation. Too basic. Levitation. Not too special. Flare. Night smiled upon seeing this. Double Flare. Night's eyes went wide and welded themselves to the text and instructions of the spell.
A sinister grin etched itself onto Night's face. "This'll be fun."
Shortly after he closed his book and praticed his new found spell.
As Avant neared the camp, he felt the warmth of the sun on his back and a present forest breeze. For some reason it was much brighter than it should be at this time; it looked as if was noon, but it was only eight in the morning. Closing in on the camp, Avant could hear some abnormal sounds not usually heard from barren patch of grassy land. It was like a flame. Not a traditional campfire flame, but a gaseous one.
Avant tried peeking over the hill that separated the camp and he, but couldn't lift his head high enough. "What's that noise?" Avant said aloud. "Is it coming from our camp? We didn't bring a gas stove."
He kept walking. "I suppose I'll find out sooner or later. Hopefully I'll make it back in time befre Night wakes up."
About 5 minutes later, Avant made it to the camp. Night appeared to be sleeping.
"Great, he's still asleep. I can just pretend I didn't go into town," Avant quietly cheered.
From underneath the blankets of where Night was sleeping a muffled voice shouted, "I wanna cast a spell!"
"Ponyfeathers." was the only word Avant could muster, for he knew too well what was coming his way.
In no more than a second, Night removed the covers from atop of himself, hopped up to his hooves, and prepared his finishing move. "I cast double flare!"
As he said those terrible awful words, two bright lights formed in Night's hooves. As he brought his hooves together, those two bright lights shot directly into Avant's face. Night laughed hysterically as Avant screamed in pain, face dug into the ground.
"Now that one was a double flare! I'd say that's what you get for heading into town without waking me up!" Night laughed as he helped up Avant.
"Its twice as bad as the normal flare," Avant mumbled in a bit of pain while he rubbed his sore eyes.
"Yeah, well good to see you made it back. How was ponyville? Nevermind, no time for questions. We have to get to the house before nightfall, and with this cart it will take about 3 hours. Possibly more now that your temporarily blinded."
Avant was still blinking. "Fine, lets start moving."
The two friends packed their belongings and readied the cart for the journey ahead. A seemingly long journey that filled the air with the sound of CLACK.
Two and a half hours passed since the two friends continued on their trek. They had finally reached the entrance of Ponyville. It made Night happy, Avant a little disappointed since he was already here earlier in the morning.
"Ugh, we're finally here, Ponyville," cheered Night.
"Seems to have gotten a little bit more lifelike from when I was here," observed Avant.
"So, uh, which way to the house?" Night turned his head in several directions.
"It's uh," Avant took a quick look around, looking for landmarks. "This way." Avant lead the way while Night pulled the cart.
Fifteen minutes later they arrived at their house. It looked like more of a small studio apartment, maybe even a shack. As they opened the door, they noticed there was nothing in this house. Absolutely nothing, just four walls. It had appeared that that not a single soul had touched the interior of the house ever since it was built.
"Sweet, looks like its completely new, so its all nice and clean," Avant cheered.
Night looked at Avant, then at the interior. Dust had carpeted the wooden floor, spiders had made their homes in the corners, and the drapes were hung over the windows, protecting the darkness from any light that attempted to barge in.
"I don't know, the architectural style looks a little outdated, and it looks like nopony has maintained it in a long time," Night said as he went back outside to move the cart and retrieve his belongings.
"How would you know, and why would you care? It's new. That's all that matters," Avant said bluntly as he also went to get his belongings from the cart.
"I read a book on house designs and how they have changed over the years. This definitely is two years old. Also, it says that they don't hold up that well against moisture, wind, and whatnot," Night remarked.
"You read too much," Avant said as he set up some of his belongings.
Night shook his head, remembering Avant's late nights reading science textbooks and poetry books his mother gave him.
Night clapped and rubbed his hooves together. "Avant, we need to take stock and see how much food and bits we have."
Avant dumped the contents of their bags on a table. "Okay, so, looks like we got 3, no, 4 apples, 2 oranges, and 10 carrots left." Avant quickly counted their currency. "And about 150 bits." Avant noticed some white and brown liquid dripping from the bags. "Oh, and a few ice cream sandwiches. Melted ones.
Night looked uncomfortable. "150 bits? That won't get us too far. We should look for jobs after we set up."
Avant raced to the cart and took out a box. He rushed back into the house. "I forgot, we also got some pizza!" Avant held the last syllable for a few seconds.
Night cringed at the noise. "Not so loud Ivan, I'm thinking. Wait, did you say pizza?"
"Heck yeah," Avant said as he set the pizza on the table. "It's pizza time," he continued with a cheesy smile.
For the next hour the two friend were talking at the table and eat their cold pizza. They didn't mind it being cold or using magic to heat it up; they hadn't eaten any breakfast anyway.
Night looked at the clock. "Wow, we spent an hour eating pizza."
"Worth it," Avant replied quickly.
"Yes, well, we need to go seek employment. 150 bits won't last long." Night got up from the floor.
"I suppose you are right, hey maybe I can get a job for the Ponyville newspaper! I'm sure they have one," Avant exclaimed.
"Great, let's go look for some jobs," Night cheered.
The two friends put away the pizza box, which still surprisingly had some pizza left in it, and took a walk into the streets looking for somewhere to work.
The two unicorns had walked for a while through Ponyville looking for work. Most business weren't looking for help, and the ones that did didn't look appealing to the two.
Night abruptly halted. "Wait, hold up," Night ordered, stopping Avant with his hoof.
"What is it?" Avant replied
"Do you feel somepony's watching us? Not like in those plays where the character says that they're being followed, but like somepony is actually stalking us?"
"Now that you speak of it, it does feel like we are being watched," Avant said as he looked around.
As Avant looked around, he saw a peculiar pink mare staring at them. As soon as she noticed that Avant was staring at her she gasped loudly and dashed away.
"O...kay, that was weird," Night said, eyebrow raised.
"Seemed normal to me," Avant replied as he quickly shook his head.
"You're not normal," Night commented.
After their strange encounter with this pink pony, they kept walking. Down the path they found the central market, riddled with all sorts of stalls and carts with food and such. As they walked in they got a lot of stares and overheard comments about them.
"Who are those ponies?" A pony asked of them asked another
"I don't know. They look new to town," The pony replied.
"That one looks rather dashing."
"You think they're, you know, gay?"
Immediately upon hearing this, Night looked confused and took a few steps away from Avant.
Avant and Night decided to leave, for they were attracting to much attention and did not want to cause trouble. Any trouble would be bad for them.
Night scratched his head. "Weird."
When Night turned back around he found himself face to face with the same pink pony earlier, and this pink pony was really close to his face.
"AUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!" Night yelled, his senses not being able to take in the sudden pink filling his sight.
"Omigoshomigoshomigosh!" The pink pony yelled. "Are you two new to town? I saw you earlier and I didn't recognize you, but maybe I did so I watched you for a little bit longer. You're new around here, right? You know what that means, right!?"
"Um...you leave us alone?" Night responded hesitantly.
"No silly, It means I throw you a PAAAAAAARRRRTYYYYYYYYYY," screamed the mare who seemed like she had more energy than all the coal-powered machines in Manehattan had.
Night rubbed his ears. "For just moving here?" Night was now very confused.
"Oh silly me I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Pinkie Pie," chirped Pinkie Pie.
Night nodded. "Uh, sure I'm Night Sky and this is my friend Avant Grade."
Avant waved and said, "Hello!"
"It's nice to meet you both! Gosh, when should we have the party? How about Wednesday? Oh boy! There will be streamers andcakeandpieandbrowniesandpunchandgamesandmoregamesandfunandandand!" Pinkie said at a speed quicker than a runaway train racing down a 75 degree mountain with it's brakes broken.
Celestia, how does she even manage to talk that fast? Night thought. He shook his head. "Where's this party going to be?"
"Sugar Cube Corner, silly," responded Pinkie. "Oh but I haven't welcomed a new pony, let alone two, in a very, very, very, very, very long time! I'll need to dust off my old welcoming supplies! See you later!" Pinkie dashed away in a blink.
Night took a minute or two to process everything that just happened in such a short time. He looked over to Avant.
Avant had sort of froze up just staring in the direction that Pinkie Pie had dashed off to.
Night shook his friend. "Avant? Avant. Hello?" No response.
"Alrighty then." Night reeled back.
And came back with a tremendous slap to Avant's face.
Avant was disoriented. "Huh, what!? Augh, my cheek, it hurts," he groaned as he rubbed his sore cheek.
"Good, because I just slapped it. You zoned out." Night chuckled
"Right, so let's split up and keep looking for a job?" Avant asked
Night agreed. "Sure, you take left I'll take right."
The two friends split up and started to look for work. Avant looked for the Ponyville newspaper while Night looked for work at anything that had to do with books, magic, or spells.
Chapter 2: Ponyville
Avant had wandered Ponyville for a while, looking for the Ponyville press. He didn't like to trust other ponies, so he never bothered to ask anypony where it was. He had been walking for about an hour, though, and was becoming extremely impatient. He had traversed every lane and street he saw, occasionally going through another avenue more than twice, and hoped that the glorious building would be found down the next road. Every building he saw was either a house or some business that didn't look appealing at all. There was one store that caught his eye, though: a camera shop. He showed some interest in this, but continued his search for the press.
Avant's stomach emitted the sound of an angry lion. "Ugh, forget this," he jeered, and switched his target from the press to a diner, bakery, or anything of the sort. He remembered he saw an abstract building a few streets back that yelled, "This place sells food!" He trotted back to where he'd remember it had been, and found a vivid building bedazzled by sweets and icing. It looked like a life-size gingerbread house, had a room in the shape of a cupcake on top of it, and the aroma that escaped from it was the most heavenly smell Avant had found in his life. A sign that hung from the building revealed that the business was named "Sugar Cube Corner."
The bell inside the building chimed as Avant opened the door and stepped inside. Sweets on display decorated the interior. There was nopony at the counter, though. "Hello?" Avant called out. A clatter of dishes was heard from another room. "Hold on, I'm coming," a young mare's voice squeaked from the same room. Carrying a tray of sweets, Pinkie Pie ran in and put them on display.
"Oh, hi, Avant!" Pinkie was happy to see him again.
"Hi, Pinkie." He looked up and smiled at her, then dropped his head back down to browse the sweets and pastries they had in store.
"What would you like?" Pinkie asked as she brushed some flour off her hooves.
Avant thought for a moment. "I'd like one of those lemon cupcakes and one of those sweet rolls behind you."
"Icing or no icing?" Pinkie asked.
"With icing, please. Thank you."
"Gotcha. That'll be 5 bits." Pinkie proceeded to fill his order.
As Pinkie was getting the sweet rolls, Avant noticed the balloons Cutie Mark on her flank. He liked balloons. Especially the blue ones, because that was the color of the first balloon his mother had bought him when he was a baby colt.
The blue mare known as Mrs. Cake trotted into the room, and seeing a stallion eyeing Pinkie's flank with a large grin on his face did not look good at all. She noticed Pinkie had a little trouble getting the frosting right, and went to help her out. "I got this, Pinkie. Can you go help Mr. Cake with the next batch?"
"Alright, Mrs. Cake. Oh and Avant, can you tell Night the party's going to be at that big red barn over at Sweet Apple Acres? The Cakes didn't approve of our little party being here." Pinkie started to walk into the kitchen.
"Will do!" Avant hesitated for a moment before continuing. "And, um, do you know where the news building for Ponyville is?"
"See that building out the front door? That one." Pinkie then disappeared into the kitchen.
A frown appeared on Avant's face as he stroked his temple. He put the bits on the counter and took his food. "Thank you," he said, not noticing that Mrs. Cake was shaking her head at him. The bell rang again as he trotted out.
As Avant neared the Ponyville news building, a sing hung on the door saying, Closed. Come back later! Avant didn't show any anger, but it swelled up inside him. Instead of bursting in a fit of anger, he just stood where he was, staring at the sign, and eating his treats from Sugar Cube Corner.
Night wandered throughout Ponyville for a while. He pulled out a book from his saddle bag and started to read it while he walked, being completely oblivious to his surroundings. As he kept walking and reading, he bumped into Pinkie Pie accidentally.
"Ow..." Night rubbed his snout. Night wasn't hoping to bump into anypony, especially Pinkie.
Pinkie inhaled at least five gallons of air. "Are you alright? You shouldn't read while you walk, silly. Oh, you know who also does that? Twilight! Did I ever tell you about the time where she was walking with a book and also bumped in to me? It was really funny! You know why? Because all the papers went flying everywhere; it was like confetti! It flew everywhere and I made paper-angels and Twilight's face looked like my birthday cake when I accidentally left it in my seat and sat on it!"
"What the hay?" were the only words Night could spew out after being bombarded by Pinkie's battalion of words.
"So, what are you doing?" Pinkie asked loudly, causing everypony around them to stare at the two.
Beads of sweat seeped out of the pores on Night's head and neck. "Trying not to attract too much attention." He then clapped his hoof to his face.
"Trying not to attract attention? Why would you want to do that?" asked Pinkie, cocking her head.
"I do not like attention, it's unsettling for me. I don't like being around other ponies that much."
"You don't? Well, If you don't want attention, then you need a disguise!"
"Right, a disguise," Night said sarcastically.
A purple unicorn had trotted up to the two. She quickly took a look at Night, then looked over to Pinkie.
"Hi Pinkie Pie, who's your friend?" asked the mare.
"Oh, hi, Twilight! This here is Night Sky. He's a new pony in town, and that means we get to throw him a PARRRRRTYYYYYYYY!" She screamed from the top of her lungs, but her voice never gave in.
"I see," Twilight said.
"Er...uh...nice to meet you, I'm Night Sky," Night quietly mumbled, but loud enough for Twilight to hear.
"Twilight Sparkle. Nice to meet you too." Twilight was staring strangely at the two.
"Um, would any of you happen to know where the Ponyville library is?" Night asked, still quietly.
Twilight looked over to Night. "Sure do. It's right this way, follow me." Twilight headed off to her library.
"See you later, Pinkie." Night ran to catch up with Twilight.
The two kept quiet for most of the walk, but then Twilight decided to break the silence. "So, Night, where are you from?"
"I'm from Manehattan," Night said, speaking louder than earlier.
Twilight nodded. "What made you move to Ponyville?"
"Things got really expensive over there. My roommate and I couldn't earn enough for even a week of food so we decided to move somewhere that was cheaper."
"Well, you picked a good place," Twilight said, smiling. She stopped at a large, hollowed out tree. "Here we are." Twilight took a key from her bag and proceeded to unlock the door.
Night was bewildered by the abnormal use of a tree. "This is the library?"
Twilight chuckled. "Well, it may not look like one, but it is." She walked in, Night following.
Night spun several times, astonished by both the number of books and the way the tree was used as a building. Nothing like this was found in Manehattan. "Wow, there are a lot of books in here." There was a huge gap between his lower and upper jaw.
Twilight walked behind her desk. "Mhm, so, what books were you looking for?"
"Uh, yeah I needed a book about the history of Ponyville, a book about that forest on the south side of town, if there is one, and, if you have it, "The Astronomer's Guide to Stars" by J.R. Nottingham."
Twilight looked up at Night. "You like Astronomy?"
"Um, yes, is there a... problem?" Night said slowly.
"Oh, no, I just find it interesting that a stallion actually takes time to observe the stars." Twilight headed to the basement. "I'll go get the books for you."
"You got books down there, too?"
"Yup." Twilight's voice was muffled and distant, but still audible.
A few minutes later Twilight emerged from the basement levitating the books. She dropped them onto the desk. "Here you go. Also the forest on the south side of town is called the Everfree Forest. Never go inside; it is filled with dangerous creatures and such. The book will tell you more about it."
Night took the books and stuffed them in his saddlebags. "Alright, thanks again, Twilight. I guess I'll see you later," Night said as he waved his hoof at Twilight and walked out the door.
She was a nice mare, Night thought to himself as he looked up to the heavens. Golly, it's getting late, I should go home. Night started to walk down the now familiar path to his home.
Twilight stood guard at the library's front door, watching Night until he disappeared over the horizon. After the sky had engulfed him, Twilight shut and locked the door, pulled the drapes over the windows, and rushed over to a small, sleeping purple dragon. Twilight pulled the blankets off of him and yelled, "Spike, wake up!" The young dragon groaned as he struggled to stay asleep.
"Twilight, can't this wait until later?" Spike searched with his hands for his blanket.
Twilight was already pacing. "No, Spike, I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia. This is very important!" Before Spike could fall back to sleep again, Twilight grabbed him and pulled him downstairs. She quickly got a paper and quill and began writing.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Something's happened...
Avant was still standing in front of the Ponyville press, but he'd already finished his treats long ago. He noticed the clock inside the building. "Mr. Clock says you should go home," Avant said to himself. After a few minutes of walking, he saw Night walking down another trail and decided to catch up. "Night, wait up!" he yelled. Upon hearing this, Night turned around.
"Hey Avant. I got some good news and bad news," Night said.
"What's the bad news?"
"I didn't get a job." Night let out a defeated sigh. "The good news is I found some books at the library."
"You and your books," Avant sighed as she shook his head. "The press was closed by the time I found it." Their house was straight ahead.
"Yeah, well, we have tomorrow to go back." Night unlocked the door to their house.
"Night, you hungry? Because I am," Avant said as he went to the ice box.
"Yeah, let's eat I guess." Night saw Avant pull out his pizza box. "Don't say it," Night quickly ordered.
"It's already in progress," Avant said with an evil grin.
"Don't do it!" Night snapped.
"It's too late for that," Avant said mischievously. Avant sucked in as much air as he could, and let it out with a, "IT'S PIZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAA TIME!"
Night covered his ears to protect them from the loud noise. "Must you always do that everytime we have pizza?" Night opened the pizza box.
"Sure do." Avant took some cold pizza and heated it up with magic.
"It's annoying, aggravating, irritating, nerve wrenching, shall I go on?" Night questioned in a rather annoyed tone.
"Haha, nope," Avant mumbled, mouth full of pizza.
The two friends continued to eat their dinner discussing matters at their makeshift table.
"Well, I'm going to bed," Avant said as he brushed his teeth and put his night hat on.
"Go for it, I'm going to study these books for a while." Night got the books out from his saddlebags and placed them on the table. "I have to do some research on this town, and why some ponies don't like us." Night pulled out his notebook and pen. "I'll see you in the morning."
"Yeah, sure. G' night, Night." Avant said sleepily.
"I hate it when he makes that pun," Night whispered to himself as he met his face with his hoof.
As the night continued to roll on, Night kept awake reading paragraph after paragraph, reading about the history of Ponyville, and about the dangerous Everfree Forest. As the night grew older, Night couldn't fight to stay awake and eventually slumped on top of his books.
Night dodged the swiping claw of an angry Timberwolf, a wolf whose body was completely made of wood. Several others were behind the leader. Knowing he stood no chance against them, Night bolted off as quick as he could. He heard a muffled voice call his name. "Night! Night!" Night looked around. No sign of life except for the bloodthirsty Timberwolves. Being distracted, Night tripped on a tree's protruding root. "Get up!" the disembodied voice said again. The Timberwolves quickly caught up to Night, but sensed something in the air, and ran off into the woods. Night let out a sigh. He thought he was safe, but suddenly, a rushing flood of water gushed out of the woods and consumed Night.
Night woke up to the feeling of ice cold water trickling down his mane and body. Avant stood above Night, his face devoid of emotion.
"W-why-what did you do!?" Night knew what happened, but he asked anyway, not being prepared for what just happened.
"Oh, I just dumped some cold water on you. Nothing really," Avant said with a sly smile.
"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!?" Night went to get a towel.
"Because it's half past noon, you've been sleeping long enough." Avant walked to the door. "I'm going to go look for the Ponyville newspaper again. Catch you later." Soon after, he disappeared into Ponyville.
Huh, half past noon. How late was I up? Night was still damp. I guess it doesn't matter too much anymore. I'd better get cleaned up and go find a job.
Night spent over an hour cleaning himself up. Night believes that proper grooming is very important, so he usually spends too much time getting his mane, tail and coat right.
Night looked out through one of the house's windows. From what he could see, it looked clear enough, but he heard that the weather ponies were going to make it colder that day. Night decided to get his jacket. Well, if he could find it. Night sighed; Avant had his junk everywhere. It was like an infection. His stuff was literally everywhere: on the floor, on the walls, even on the roof. Night pulled out his suitcase and opened it. He got out his turtleneck sweatshirt and put it on. Before he closed his suitcase, he noticed his pennant. The pennant was something his parents gave him when he was just a colt. It looked like a star of some sort. Night stared at his pennant for a while before putting it around his neck and walking out of the door.
As Night wandered through the streets of Ponyville, looking around at his surroundings, he noticed that this town was much more rural compared to Manehatten, and even his hometown Coltifornia. While Night kept walking, he saw what seemed to be like a central market place, with ponies from all over Ponyville exchanging goods for bits. Night decided to check the market place out later. After another half an hour or so of walking, Night sat down in a local park. Resting under a tree, Night pulled out the astronomy book he got from Twilight the other day. Night fixed his eyes onto the words inside the book and started to read.
After a few hours, Night finished the books he was reading, so he decided not to take the chance and lose them, but return them to Twilight. Night stood up and stretched his legs and put the books into his saddlebags and started to head off into the direction of the library.
Night decided to take the longer route to the library because he had some spare time on his hooves. On the way there, Night saw some animals running around with some nuts stuffed in their mouths. He saw bunnies hopping about in a wide open meadow, birds singing songs to their loved ones, and a deer hiding in the shrubs not too far away.
Nice town. It's very peaceful, no factory noises, annoying ponies, nothing, Night thought to himself.
Night had finally reached his destination of the library. He walked up to the door of the library and rapped at the door. A few seconds later, he heard hoof steps approaching, and then the door opened. He found himself staring at Twilight.
"Uh... um... hi Twilight. Just here to drop off these books that I borrowed the other day." Night said with a odd smile as he pulled the books out of his saddlebag.
"Wow, you read them in a day?" Twilight asked, a little amazed.
"Well, I was up a little late last night reading," Night admitted, a little embarrassed as he handed the books to Twilight.
"I do that sometimes too." Twilight levitated the books to their places in the shelves.
"You do an amazing job keeping this place organized," complimented Night.
"Thanks, I try and keep it neat," Twilight responded. "Is there anything else you needed?"
"Nah, I got everything I need. I'll catch you later Twilight." Night turned around and proceeded to walk away.
"Bye, Night."
The fibers of Princess Celestia's red velvet caked silently split as she dug her fork into it. She prodded the now-separated slice with the fork's spokes and removed it from the fork with her mouth. She shut her eyes and let out an audible "Mhmmmm" as the slice disintegrated in her mouth.
"Do you like it?" asked the chef who'd prepared it.
"Yes, very. Thank you," Celestia said after she swallowed.
"Good to hear! I'll uh, leave you to your cake." The chef swiftly left the Princess' chambers and shut the doors behind himself.
Celestia waited for a few seconds before tossing her fork away and mashing the cake into her mouth with her hoof. As she licked the surviving crumbs off her hoof, a green flash of light produced a hastily wrapped up scroll. It was from Twilight. She grabbed it before it hit the ground and didn't even need to unravel it.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Something's happened. I met a stallion named Night Sky this morning. I know everypony here but I never saw his face until today. He says his roommate came along with him. What's going on? What do I do? Should I tell the others why nopony has came to or left Ponyville in so long? How come they got through? Please write back soon. I'm scared.
Your good and faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle.
Princess Celestia quickly levitated a quill and jar of ink to herself and wrote on the back of Twilight's letter, I'll send somepony soon. Treat them like everypony else in that town. Don't let them hurt anypony. Don't let them bleed. After Celestia sent it away, she sat in her bed, deep in her thoughts.
Author's Note I would like to thank Sirius who is now our Chief Supreme editor of Outlanders thanks Sirius!
