It was a just another great summer day in Ponyville. The sun was high in the sky, light beaming down on the small town, casting it's residents with a comforting warmth. Down at the train station, a large passenger train was unloading. Families walked about on vacation, trying to make out their schedules. Couples walked around happily, holding hooves, looking for the most romantic spots in town. A light brown pegasus stepped off the small train and onto the crowded platform, dragging along two suitcases and a saddlebag. Her light blue eyes searched around hopefully, looking for a cab. After a few minutes of trying to get through the large crowd, the mare managed to reach the edge of the station and next to the main road.
"Taxi!" she called, waving out her hoof. In no time a carriage stopped nearby.
"Need a ride, miss?" the blue colt connected to the taxi asked.
"Yes, please." the pegasus replied, loading her stuff inside.
After she hopped in, the brown colt controlling the vehicle turned to her, "What's your name, sweet-cheeks?"
"Oh, Rosemary. But feel free to call me Rose."
"Alright Rose," the driver said, as if testing out how the name sounded. "Where to?"
Rosemary pulled a small piece of paper out of her saddlebag, then read aloud, "221b Bakers Street, I think."
The stallion nodded, then shouted to his friend pulling the carriage, "Go to 221b Bakers Street!" Soon they were on their way.
As they rode, Rosemary and the driver-whose name happened to be Gear-struck up a conversation.
"So, what's you're business here in Ponyville," Gear said. "If you don't mind me asking."
"Oh, it's fine," Rose said, "I'm moving."
"Moving? From where?" Gear asked.
"Manehattan."
"Manehattan? So you're one of them city folk, huh?"
Rosemary chuckled, "I guess so. Lived there since I was just a filly."
Gear gave a big laugh, then spoke once again, "Well I saw your cutie mark-the two faces. The laughing one and crying one. So yall are in theatre business?"
"Oh, yeah." Rosemary sighed, and looked out the window. That was one of the things it stood for. She was an actor-preformed in plays and what-not, but the cutie mark, that wasn't the only think it was there for. Two faces. Two sides. Two personalities...
"Trust me, Ponyville is great, i'm sure you'll love it here!" Gear said, jolting the mare out of her thought
Rosemary smiled and nodded, then learned her head against the window, watching the scenery roll by. Her mind raced. Ponyville did seem like a nice place. Lots of nature, the locals seemed kind, it looked quiet... peaceful. But small. How fast could rumors could travel through the place? Like a certain mare switching personalities and waking up the next day with the city's chief of police... again. Or finding her self with three wallets from three different colts in the middle of a bar.
Shut up, stop beating up yourself. Rosemary though. She was going to try to be optimistic. Those things happened at Manehattan-a more rugged, crazy, dangerous place. This was her new home. There would be new friends, a new town. A new life. She smiled to herself. Like a second chance.
And besides, it was her first day, what could go wrong in such short time?
"Scuse me, miss, but we've arrived." Gear said. Rosemary sat up slowly, just realizing she had fallen asleep during the ride. Outside the window was a small house. Her small house. After getting her luggage out, she said thank you to Gear and the blue colt that had pulled them along. After the taxi drove away, Rosemary dragged her stuff to the front door. It was a slightly bigger then normal wooden door, painted with a coat of red. Rosemary fished a small set of keys out of her saddlebag, and unlocked the door. The door opened a small hallway leading to a living room-nothing much, just a recliner, a book case, and a fireplace. Next to the living room was a kitchen with a glass table and two counters. Back near the hallway, a door lead to a bathroom and shower. The room over was a bedroom. Rosemary's bedroom. She hauled her luggage through the doorway, then set her bags on the queen sized bed. There were two nightstands, a bookshelf, a clock, a closet, a desk, and a clothes drawer. It was perfect.
After unpacking all her things, Rosemary finally decided to check out the town. Learn where things were. Meet some of the residents. Soon she was out the door, with a bag of bits-which also held her keys. Her house was one of many, and down the road was a store. It looked like a candy shop. When she approached, Rosemary read the sign hanging near the door:
Sugarcube Corner
it read. Sugar. That's what the place looked like-it seemed like the candy shop was modeled after a gingerbread house. Rosemary's stomach growled. She hadn't eaten anything since the train-perhaps some food wouldn't hurt.
"Hello?" Rosemary called as she walked into the sweets store. The place was warm and smelled of fresh baked cookies, and it looked great too. Pastries were scattered all over, from lollipops to cupcakes. There were two counters and two stairs leading up, but no one was there. She approached the counter and pressed the small bell.
Ding!
The small noise resonated in the room. Rosemary was about to turn around and leave when the sound of hoofsteps came from the set of stairs behind the counter.
"One moment!" a mare's voice shouted. A blue pony in a yellow paron trotted down the steps, her pink mane bobbing up and down. From the fact that she wore an apron, and her cutie mark was three cupcakes, Rosemary deducted that this earth pony worked at the shop.
"Hi," the pony said when the got to the counter, "sorry, I was taking care of the foals."
Rosemary smiled, "Oh, it's fine."
"Are you new here?" the blue mare asked.
"Uh, yeah, I just moved in. I'm actually down the street, over there." Rosemary pointed towards the door.
"Oh, it's so nice to have new residents. Well, i'm Cup Cake, but everypony calls me Mrs Cake. What's your name, sweetie?"
"Oh, Rosemary. But some ponies call me Rose."
"Well, Rosemary," Mrs. Cake said, "Welcome to Ponyville. Here, have a cupcake, on the house." she handed the brown mare a cupcake.
"Thanks!" Rose said, then she took an experimental bite of the small yellow treat. Then another. Then another.
"Oh, man, this is good!" Rosemary said through a mouthful of cupcake.
"Thank you deary, and here, have a napkin." Mrs. Cake said, handing Rose a small white napkin. After finishing off her cupcake, wiping of her face, and buying some cookies-Rosemary was prepared to leave.
"Thanks so much for the food Mrs. Cake."
"Any time, sweetie."
Rose turned toward the door and began to leave, when suddenly a pink pony zoomed through, almost crashing into her. The strange pony almost bolted up the stairs, but then stopped, and turned back to Rosemary.
"Who are you?" She asked, her blue eyes brimming with curiosity and energy.
"I'm Rosemary, some ponies call me Rose. I, uh, just moved in over at-"
"OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!" the pink earth pony then turned around and zoomed out the door.
Rosemary turned-stunned-to Mrs. Cake, "Um, what?"
"Oh, that's Pinkie Pie. She lives upstairs-and trust me, she's always like that. To her-well-life's a party."
After finishing up her shopping and chatting with a few ponies, Rosemary was ready to go home. As she approached her new doorstep, the sun began to dip under the horizon, shinning the last of its brilliant rays of light across the town. With two new bags of groceries slung across her back, Rosemary entered her new home. It was dark inside, since the sun that previously lit the rooms was gone. The mare reached out to flip a light switch, and when she did...
"Surprise!" A room full of ponies cheered as a small part of the house became bathed in light. Rosemary's heart did a back-flip. Getting surprised was a trigger-one of the things that made Rosemary switch personalities. For a moment-just a moment-she could feel herself loosing grip. A familiar sensation that occurred right before changing personalities. It was like standing before a deep pit, staring into the creeping darkness. All she needed was a push. Luckily there wasn't anything to push her with. After Rosemary recovered from the shock, one of the ponies nearby-Pinkie Pie-bolted over.
"OhmygoshIsawyouatthebakeryandyousaidyoujustmovedinsoiadeapartysothat" she spoke a thousand miles per hour, and Rosemary could barely keep up. Luckily, a purple unicorn approached them.
"Pinkie," she said, "Try to calm down a bit." then she turned to Rosemary, "Hi, i'm Twilight Sparkle. Sorry about Pinkie here, she can get a little crazy at parties."
Trust me, you haven't seen crazy, Rosemary thought to herself.
"Oh, no, it's fine," the pegasus replied, "She was just excited, that's all. And i'm Rosemary-or Rose. Whatever you prefer."
They shook hooves.
"Well it's nice to meet you, Rose," Twilight said with a smile,"And I think what Pinkie was saying is she saw you at the bakery, then wanted to throw you a party since you're new-then you can get to know everypony."
Twilight turned to Pinkie, who nodded vigorously, as if silently saying Yep! That's right!
"Oh." Rosemary said, relaxing, "Well thanks Pinkie."
"Noproblemilovemakingmewfriendsand..." She continued on and on.
"Well i'm gonna go get a drink." Rosemary said after a few seconds of speed talking. Pinkie Pie just grinned and nodded excitedly, already speeding off to find her other friends.
Rosemary leaned against the wall, a cup of red fruit punch in one of her hooves. She watched all the other ponies talk and laugh. Socialize. Every once in a while she sipped some of her drink as she fell deeper and deeper into her thoughts. She thought about her old life... her old apartment... all the things left behind when she got on the train. Including her old reputation. She did not miss that one. Back in Manehattan, she was known for her other side. She was known as the devil in high heels.
"Hey." a voice said, jolting Rosemary out of her thoughts. Just then she realized another pegasus was next to her. The other pegasus was light blue, with a rainbow colored mane.
"Sup?" the blue one asked.
"Oh, nothing."
"So this is your place?"
"Yeah..."
"Just moved here?"
"Mhm."
The two of them started up a conversation. Rosemary learned that the other pegasus' name was Rainbow Dash and that she also lived in Ponyville-in a house in the sky. Sounded cool.
Somewhere in the back of her head, Rosemary thought so is this how easy it is to make friends in Ponyville?
"So, why did you move to Ponyville?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Well, me and my family used to come here on vacation," Rosemary explained, "I really liked it. And I was getting tired of my Manehattan apartment, so when an opportunity opened up-a house became open for sale-I grabbed it." Also because almost everypony thought I was psycho. Rosemary thought to herself ruefully.
Rainbow Dash smiled, "Yeah, houses don't go up for sale that often. Most ponies who live here stay here. It's a really nice place."
Rosemary smiled back, "Yeah, i'm pretty lucky. Well one sec, I have to go use the bathroom. Be right back." The party was dying down, with about half of the ponies that had been there in the start.
"S'cuse me."
"Pardon me."
"Coming through.
Rosemary tried to get past every pony without bumping into anyone. Suddenly, she tripped over somepony's hoof. Trying to regain her balance, she stumbled forward, only to fall down even harder. Right into a table with half a cake on in. In seconds she was covered with frosting and other foods. That was a trigger. There it was again, the feeling of standing in front of a pit. When she looked back, Rosemary spotted a group of colts pointing and laughing-one of them had tripped her. She felt a small burst of anger. That was the push. Then she was gone-blacked out-with her other side taking her place. Taking control.
Being in control of a body again was a good thing. Being covered in cake was not. The pegasus slowly got up, slightly confused. Imagine waking up from blacking out in an apartment in Manehattan, and you wake up on a broken table covered in cake. The mare's eyes searched the room, trying to take in everything. When she saw the colts laughing, the pegasus made the connection, then brushed off the food that had spilled on her. Next she undid her braided mane until it fell loosely down behind her head. Now the hair was unrestrained-like her. She approached the group of colts who had been laughing.
"Hey boys." she said in a smooth voice, "Which one of you assholes tripped Rosemary?"
The colts stopped laughing, and starred, "We tripped you, not Rosemary-who's Rosemary?"
"Well, I suppose I was Rosemary, but now i'm not. Yet I'm the one that gets covered in cake. You can call me... uh," the mare paused to think of a name, then smiled slyly, "Thorn. Yeah, Thorn. Has a nice ring to it. Now, which one of you tripped her?"
They all starred at her, confused, "What?"
"Oh, explaining is so hard. Lets just get down to business. Which one of you tripped her? Tell me now, or i'll kick all your flanks instead of just one. Or two. Whatever I feel like, actually."
"You think you can take us on?" a blue earth pony with a fuzzy black mane asked. He tried to look menacing, but Thorn thought he looked like an idiot waiting to be pounded on.
"Um, yeah. Yeah I do." she said with a devilish smile, before throwing her hoof into the blue stallion's face.
"Shit!" he cried out, covering up his-now bleeding-nose.
"Come on," she said with a small smile, "I haven't gotten in a fight in such a long time."
Five minutes, three stolen watches, and 4 unconscious colts later, Thorn walked away from the fight unscathed. A small ring of ponies had surrounded her, starring in awe.
"It's feels so good to be back," Thorn cracked her neck, "Where's the nearest bar?"
