Author's Note
Well, I've been waiting for weeks on my editor to finish up (looking at you, Magnus!) so I finally decided to upload this early. This is only about 1/3 of part one, so there's a lot more to go with four parts total. Enjoy!
Being Young- Spring Edited
Part 1- Spring
Written by SparkCloud
Edited Version by Magnus the Blue
School's Out.
It was a bright day in spring, the fresh breeze blowing and the great sun shining. It also happened to be the day before every young filly and colt was released from the horrors of school for a brief, weeklong break away from it all. After that unfortunately short week, it would be back to school for everypony, and the foals could get back to learning how to become responsible young mares and stallions.
A certain young colt, by the name of Sunny Smiles, was probably the one who was the most happy to be getting out of school. It wasn't that he hated learning; it was just that school was boring and pointless and was something he didn't need in his busy life. He wanted adventure! He wanted to feel the thrills of exploration with his orange mane flying past his face as he raced down a steep hill. He didn't want to feel the soreness of his flank from being in a chair all day. He would rather have the soreness in his hooves from climbing tall mountains, if he could have it his way. But he couldn't. Instead, he was sitting in a classroom watching a clock, his bright green eyes hypnotized by the back and forth motion, ticking off each second until...
DING DING DING!
A white, older looking mare with pink glasses framing her eyes quickly rushed out a few sentences, her voice barely audible over the bell.
"My little ponies! Make sure you finish the homework that I assigned before you return from your vacation! Now go have some fun, and I'll see you all after the break!"
A cream colored blur rushed out of its seat and was the first one out the door. That blur turned out to be Sunny Smiles, eagerly looking for his friend. He searched through the bustling crowd of excited young ponies for a few seconds, hoping to see a yellow filly somewhere inside the mass of bodies. Sighing dramatically Sunny turned back to the classroom door, only to see the studious form of Daylight, hunched over her papers, scribbling away.
"Psst! Daylight. Daylight!"
She looked up from her notes with her curly sky-blue mane bouncing and saw Sunny Smiles waving toward her wildly.
"Come on Daylight, your taking too long!"
Daylight rolled her deep blue eyes and sighed. She closed her book and levitated her notebook and pen into her saddle bag.
"What’s so important that you need to interrupt my notes? You almost made me forget what I was going to write down!"
Grinning widely, Sunny said, "Well I just wanted to know if you would be able to come with me to my aunt's for the break. She lives over in Ponyville, and she's told me there are soooo many places to explore!"
As the two friends began walking, Daylight looked down and hesitated, "Well, I would have to ask my parents, and then there's the homework Mrs. Hitherberry assigned us. I want to get it done as quickly as possible so I can revise it. I want to make sure it’s perfect before I turn it in."
"Ah, come on! You don't need to do that stup-" Sunny thankfully noticed Daylight's scowling face before finishing, "-endously awesome amazing assignment. What was the homework anyways? I kinda didn't catch it..."
Daylight smiled deviously, "Mrs. Hitherberry only told us seven times."
Sunny gave a pleading look, which caused Daylight to laugh. She finally gave in.
"Ok, ok. I'll tell you, you slacker. We're supposed to finish reading ‘The Scarlet Cutie Mark’ and start working on the questions for the story."
"Oh," Sunny said dumbly, "I guess that won't be too hard..."
Sunny then let out a silent groan. He hadn't started reading the book yet. It would probably take a few hours every single evening over spring break to just finish the reading. And even then there were the questions to worry about…
Daylight continued, "Oh, and don't forget that essay we have to write."
"Essay?" Sunny whimpered, his face going pale, "Wh-what is this essay over? I don't remember her saying anything about an essay..."
"Ha! You don't remember anything when it comes to school. We have to write about something that happened to you over the break. You know what? I think I will go with you to your aunt's. I know I'll have an experience to write about if I'm hanging out with you!"
Sunny felt slightly warmer, and also felt as if a two ton weight had been taken off his chest. If Daylight were to come along, he knew she would help out and lighten his huge load of homework. If she was in the right mood, that is.
"I still have to ask my parents, of course, but I know they'll agree. So, where did you say your aunt lives again?"
"She lives in Ponyville. Its south of here, about three hours away." Looking dreamily off into the distance, Sunny continued, "There are hills and wide open prairies, mountains and the Everfree forest-"
Daylight gasped and cut into Sunny’s fantasy, "I've heard of that! It's a forest that isn't controlled by weather ponies. It grows on its own free will. Now that's just weird..." Ignoring her, Sunny continued.
"And there's a bunch of ponds, and if we're lucky, we can go visit Canterlot and see Princess Celestia herself!" Sunny was out of breath and smiling ecstatically.
Their wandering had led them out to the front steps of the school. The bright rays of afternoon sunlight poured down from the open sky. Daylight glared at Sunny with an exasperated look.
"I highly doubt we'll get to meet Princess Celestia, much less set a single hoof in Canterlot. There's such a small chance of that happening..." Daylight trailed off as she saw Sunny trotting off toward his house, not hearing a word she had said. Daylight was unfortunately used to the thick headed antics of her more lively friend. Celestia knows why they, of all ponies, happened to become companions.
"See yea later, Daylight!” Sunny called back to her, his energetic voice carrying on the wind “Be up early and ready to go! I'll see you at your house tomorrow!"
"Don't be late!" Daylight replied to the boisterous colt before sighing and heading off to her house in the other direction.
<><><>
Day 1 of 5- Travel
Bright and early the next morning, Daylight heard a hoof knocking on her front door. Sighing, she jumped up from the couch she had been laying on and trotted over to open the door. It was Sunny, late as usual. Daylight had been packed and ready to leave an hour ago.
In bounded Sunny, mane flying out behind him. He began running circles around the kitchen table at a dizzying speed.
"Are you ready to go? We’ve got a long journey ahead, and it'll be tiring and a big adventure! We're going to have so much fun!"
Daylight gave Sunny a weary stare, "You know, you’re an hour and eleven minutes late."
Sunny paused in midair and turned his head to look at Daylight quizzically. He fell to the ground with a thud.
"Really? Oh, did I say six o'clock? I meant seven."
Daylight rolled her eyes. How typical. "Of course you did! Now are we going to head out or-"
"Yeah!" Said Sunny, jumping to his feet. "Let's get going. We have a bit of a walk to the carriage station and, if we want to get there before lunch, we better hurry!"
Sunny and Daylight stepped out of the house and into the crisp morning air. The sun was beginning to awaken, and stretched its rays over the city. Neatly dressed ponies where rushing about hurrying to get to their jobs on time.
A fifteen minute trot away from Daylight's house was a carriage stop, where the two soon found themselves. They needed only to wait a few more minutes when a carriage pulled up.
"Well hello there young foals, where are you headed?" The pony pulling the carriage asked.
"We're going to my aunt Cherry Blush's house for spring break! We're going to have adventures from dawn to dusk and-"
Sunny was butted out of the way by Daylight, stumbling to the side. "Hello, sir. We were planning to go to Ponyville, to visit my friend's aunt. How much will it be?"
"It will be sixteen bits total."
Daylight rummaged around in her saddle bag, pulled out twenty bits, and then handed them over to the pony.
"Thank you, young lady. Climb aboard!"
And with a slight squeaking of tires, the two friends headed out on their long three hour journey from Seasonvale to Ponyville. Sadly for Sunny, the travel wasn't as exciting as he had hoped. At first, Daylight laughed slightly at her friend's grumpy attitude. This laughter quickly turned to annoyance with Sunny Smiles' consistent asking of, "Are we there yet?" The ride was a peacefully pleasant one, and Daylight was sad that Sunny didn’t have the capacity to enjoy it.
Finally, a little before noon, when Daylight finally had it up to her horn, they reached their destination.
"Are we there yet?"
She stared at her energetic companion and said in a sarcastic tone "Yes, we’re here."
"Really?" Sunny looked out the window and started jumping up and down. "Yay! We are!"
There before them lay Ponyville, a bright blot of rainbow colors on a green expanse of grassland, separated from the world by deep blue rivers.
Daylight's ears perked up when she heard what Sunny said. She then looked out the window as well, "Hey, we are finally here! Now, are you done asking?"
Sunny looked down, "Sorry, I just kinda get a bit excited when I'm bored. Ooh, what is that?!"
Looking out the window of the carriage, Sunny saw a huge white castle precariously hanging off the side of the tallest mountain behind Ponyville.
"That is Canterlot. It's where the princesses Celestia and Luna live. It's also where the Grand Gala will be held in a few months. Oh, if only the school could plan a field trip so we could go! Wouldn't it be so fun? I would just love to dance with all the other ponies!"
"Meh," Sunny said, looking less enthused with the mention of dancing, "I'm not much of a dancer. It's boring and pointless and hurts my hooves."
"Oh you poor thing,” Daylight responded sarcastically, then adding, “Well, you wouldn't have to dance. You could just go out in the garden and look around. It's supposed to be the biggest and best garden in all of Equestria! It has every single type of bird and flower imaginable!"
"A garden expedition would be better than dancing..." Sunny trailed off, thinking of all the things to find in a garden. Colorful plants. Bleh. Soft furry animals. To cute. Possibly, a secret tunnel that leads to a faraway land!
"Yeah, that would be amazing... Secret tunnels," Sunny whispered quietly, his eyes glazed over.
"Whatever, Sunny. You can be so random sometimes,"
Daylight's eyes strayed away from Canterlot and toward the small village nestled in between two small hills.
"So that is Ponyville? It's a lot smaller than I thought it would be." she said to Sunny.
When she didn't get a response, she glanced over only to see Sunny still staring dumbly into the distance.
"Sunny Smiles!" the Fluttershy-yellow filly shouted at the daydreaming colt.
"Hm? What Daylight?" Sunny said, shaking his head as if he were trying to shake off a swarm of bees.
"I said, 'So is that Ponyville?'" Daylight repeated, on the verge of losing control.
"Yep! Aunt Cherry Blush lives out on the outskirts of Ponyville. She owns a cherry tree farm; it's the best fruit farm in all of Equestria!"
"Well, calling it 'the best fruit farm in all of Equestria' is probably taking it a bit far."
"Nuh uh, it's the best! My family used to go there every year when I was a tiny colt. It has trees, and cherries, and cherry trees!"
"Ok, but I will have to see it to believe it."
"Oh, you will!"
