Chapter 1
The problems concerning the rest of Equestria rarely affected the ponies neighboring Mexicolt, the kingdom to the south. They would not have heard of Nightmare Moon returning to Equestria, and Discord wreaking havoc in Ponyville if it wasn’t for a sea foam green unicorn who passed by town every so often, obsessively visiting the ponymids and temples in Mexicolt, often featured in Daring Do novels, to prove some mythological creatures that walked on two legs existed, creatures she called humans. The fact that there were new Elements of Harmony was surprising to them as well. They had hardly noticed the eternal night since the new Elements seemed to have fixed up the problem before the night was over, as well as turning Discord back to stone before he was able to much chaos outside of Ponyville. In fact, the stories that the unicorn told at the bar, apple cider in hand, seemed so farhoofed that many ponies didn’t believe in them at all. Some didn’t believe her from the stories, other from her quirks that no other pony seemed to have, but most importantly, the strange item of clothing she chose to wear on every visit, a human creation, she claimed, as pants, similar to a dress, but the fabric was used to cover both back legs and seemed rather restricting, unlike a vest or a dress, which many mares wear on special occasions which don’t impede movement.
This wasn’t a concern to many ponies, especially when their village had to deal with so many other things. Being the closest village between Equestria and Mexicolt, Celestia would often come through town as she went to their neighboring kingdom for diplomatic reasons. Mexicolt, a relatively new nation, in comparison to Equestria’s age being over a millennia, was dealing with population control, having many ponies wanting to move to Equestria for it’s fair climate, in most places, and prosperity, however with Celestia welcoming new ponies into Equestria, changlings found an opportunity to find their way through the cracks in the immigration system, almost causing Canterlot to fall victim to their queen, Chrysalis. This led to a new section of the Royal Guard to be stationed in Hoofston, monitoring relations between the two kingdoms more closely. While they were obviously welcome, the many earth ponies had to work even harder, since food was hard to grow, and scarce as it was, having more mouths to feed, as well as putting up a makeshift barracks for the ponies while several other ponies were hard at work making a permanent building.
Palmetto, however, had her own problems to deal with, considering as hard as Cloudsdale tried to get a rain cloud or two over to Hoofston, many dried up before reaching Appleloosa. At least they were able to grow apple trees somewhat successfully. Being one of the two pegasus ponies, which also means being forced to be a weather pony since shortly after she learned to fly as a filly, wasn’t a huge problem when she was in charge of one or two clouds a day, maybe three if she was lucky. Cloud Dasher, the other pegasus, would take turns with Palmetto to clear the skies whenever necessary, but most ponies in Hoofston liked having the few clouds in the sky to protect them from the glaring heat meaning little to no work most days for the two of them. Every few years, somepony wrote a letter to Princess Celestia to see if there was anything she could do about the heat; however she always responded with a similar letter, this year’s being:
My dearest subjects of Hoofston,
I keep everything as harmonious as possible throughout Equestria, whether everypony believes it or not. While I raise the sun, and my dear sister, Princess Luna, raises the moon, we must maintain harmony between every city and village, for if it was a certain temperature in other places we wouldn’t have so much diversity in plants, and creatures alike throughout Equestria. Look at your cacti, and shrubbery, and look to the succulent oranges you grow in Hoofston, and remember it can only be grown there because of the environment. Also look to the Neightherlands, where they can ask all the other animals there to share their coats in the summers so they can be nice and cool, without a thick coat of fur, and everypony can wrap themselves up in the coats they share with us ponies in the winter.
Cloudsdale does their best with providing everypony with adequate cloud coverage, whether it be for rain or shade, however the water used to make clouds can sometimes be hard to obtain, and having excess can be dangerous to the pegusi that carry it to Cloudsdale. This year, the pegasus Rainbow Dash of Ponyville was in charge of the operation, however several of her helpers were sick with the Pony Pox and while they accomplished the task, it could have endangered many ponies if they were unable to succeed.
I wish you and all the citizens of Hoofston well.
Princess Celestia.
The clouds weren’t too much of a problem for Palmetto and Cloud Dasher, though sometimes Cloud would like to sleep atop one and not move it to a place where more ponies could appreciate its use, like the park or above the orange fields so the earth ponies could have some shade. This led to trouble when he was being especially lazy and making the two clouds of the day into one larger bed, a problem Palmetto had to face often by sneakily taking wisps of cloud from under his bed and forming a new cloud with her hooves, often waking him in mid-air as he would sometimes fall if Palmetto wasn’t too careful about where she took the wisps from, and having to catch him before he hit the ground.
Today though, she was facing a problem she has had since as long as she could remember, her blank flank. She has always been a weather pony, not that she didn’t enjoy it, but she hadn’t really found a special talent like everypony else.
“I know I shouldn’t worry too much about it, I mean where else but Hoofston are there ponies that are still blank flanks as full grown mares and colts? Everypony is so hard at work here making sure that the village is okay, and everything is fine on this side of Equestria, as well as sending as many oranges to every city and village, to really focus on anything else.” Palmetto placed her cup of cider down on the bar, looking at Cloud Dasher as he guzzled down his, fifth, she thought, cup of cider who was obviously not paying attention.
“You guys should do something like the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Palmetto turned around, surprised to hear another voice after the bar had been so painfully quiet since she showed up, and saw that mysterious unicorn that passes through town sitting at a table close behind them, her coat dirty and unkempt, like she had just come out of the jungles of Mexicolt, and a face full of excitement. “They’re some fillies from back home in Ponyville who go as a group of friends and do all these things, like start a rock band like KISS, you know the ones the humans listened to! I found out all about them back in the Canterlot library, well that is beside the point. I mean everypony’s talents were something that the humans did before; I mean my cutie mark is a lyre, like the ones the human’s used to play. I mean that this is hard, and I mean hard, to play with just your hooves, you use magic to play it with an imaginary hand with these things called fingers! So you should go and try to find out what to do by doing everything that is possible!” By the time the unicorn had finished ranting and gone back to the strange items she had with her on the table, Palmetto had disregarded the crazy ramblings and accounted it to too much cider, and too much heat in the jungle.
“Well you know,” Cloud Dasher started, “if you actually did something besides helping out everypony that you can when you’re not working, you might find something out. Why can’t you be a regular pegasus pony and love flying, huh? I mean most of us have some kind of cutie mark that shows us what we love about the sky. I mean look at mine, of these two clouds and the sun rising behind them, showing that I am utterly awesome, like a rising sun.” He beamed and flipped his golden mane and flashing his teeth, like he was attempting to impress a young schoolfilly, but failed horribly at any attempts to either impress Palmetto or the unicorn behind them, obsessing over a strange piece of circular plastic with a hole in the center, resembling a donut the size of a filly.
“Or of the time you always like to slack off and go to sleep,” Palmetto muttered. “By the way Cloud, when I said I was buying tonight, I didn’t mean drink all you want and leave me bankrupt!”
‘We’re celebrating, remember! How often is it that we get five clouds in one day to play with? We even made it sprinkle today for a couple hours, didn’t you see all the ponies frolicking outside and smiling and singing. We’re like heroes today!”
“It would be easier to be a hero if I knew what my special talent was,” she replied with a hint of sarcasm and sadness. “That way I could help out in what I do best.”
“Palmetto, you’re a great weather pony! I mean you’re the only one of us who can turn five small clouds into one big enough to make it rain, and then control that rain into not letting it pour all out at once, but providing everypony with some happiness today.” He for once seemed sincere.
After tossing a whole twelve bits into the jar, Palmetto picked herself up and casually dismissed herself from the bar, flying on home to her cottage towards the edge of town, next to the newly constructed barracks for the Royal Guard. As she lay her head down on a soft bed of hay, she could hear distant rough-housing of the guards nearby. She took out a scroll and took a quill in her mouth and crosses out a sentence at the bottom of the paper: Making it rain. “Well, time to make up more ideas for what my special talent is, isn’t that right?” She looked at an old stuffed pony, tattered from years of use, but lovingly stitched back together. “Well got any more ideas?”
The sound of hoof striking wood resonated in the small cottage. Rubbing her eyes with one hoof, Palmetto got up and lazily walked to the door, her mane a mess.
“Ma’am, we’re going to have to ask you to evacuate. Several changelings have snuck across the border disguised as members of the royal guard returning from patrol. Everypony is gathering at Hoofston square for inspection, please head there.” The unicorn then quickly galloped off to the neighboring dwellings. Palmetto quickly scanned what was going on around her, seeing several fillies trembling as they followed their parents into town, and that crazy green unicorn yelling that the changelings were after the tire she had in her hotel room, whatever that was. Running inside to put her cutie mark ideas list, and her stuffed unicorn in her saddlebag, she flew off to town, still sleepy, but able to at least get off the ground.
“At least there really isn’t anypony I can bump into in the sky except Cloud, but I bet he is still sleeping through this ruckus,” she thought to herself, smiling a little, landing at the end of what seemed to be the inspection line.
“I heard they’re bringing in an airship this time, anything you know about that?” Someponies were chatting to themselves, with looks of terror on their face.
“An airship, whatever for?”
“It’s just changelings, they rarely cause too much trouble unless a whole hive comes, but they normally don’t care too much about harming Hoofston.”
“Well with the incident in Canterlot, who knows what Celestia will do to protect her borders? But what could they bring on an airship?”
“More royal guard? I have to work even longer days than before to be able to supply all this food! If it wasn’t for Sweet Apple Acres helping provide their apples to the guards and citizens here, we would have run out of food when they were setting up shop here!”
“Excuse me,” Palmetto interrupted, “but airships are normally only used for royal business and the few that Equestria has pretty much help move the princess from place to place. You see they’re especially designed for different types of weather, so the princess and its crew can be comfortable onboard. The one they take to Mexicolt uses magic to keep the inside cool, and the ones they use for their travels north, like to the Neightherlands has some kind of magical internal heating. Well, back on topic, it means most likely one of the princesses, or somepony close to the royal family is coming here.”
“You mean like an A/C! The princesses must have gotten that idea from humans!” The sea-foam green unicorn beamed, hopping up and down excited to once again intrude with her crazy ideas.
“Wait, isn’t it just a couple changelings that got through, why would a princess come just for that?” An earth pony colt inquired. He seemed as tired as Palmetto. Being woken up at the middle of the night was not enjoyable for anypony here, since after the inspection it would most likely be daytime, and they would have to work on the little sleep they got, or else there may not be enough food to be harvested for everypony who lived there.
“Well as far as I know, changelings aren’t a threat unless their queen is with them. They can’t do anything without their queen’s consent.” Bookworm, the elderly librarian stated, wobbling around in his walker, legs shaking.
“Bookworm, why don’t you sit down? Here let me help you.” Several ponies helped Bookworm sit down and move his walker out of the way of the Royal guard who were making sure the lines were straight and orderly. “There, feeling better?”
“Much, thank you, kind mares and gentlecolts.” He smiled softly before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep almost instantly.
“I hope this doesn’t take too much longer, I left my stove on.” Palmetto recognized that voice several ponies behind her in line.
“What are you doing cooking at this time, Cloud?”
“Why does that matter, look up there.” He pointed with a hood into the distance where even a pony with great vision could barely see the rough shape of an airship. The majestic vessel floated in the sky held up by a giant balloon, being propelled forward by one of the most inventive creations of Starswirl the Bearded, simply called a propeller. Made of beautifully polished wood and elegantly painted trimming to match Celestia’s mane, it stood like a moving monument to Equestria’s grandeur and prosperity.
“Everypony settle down, the princesses’ student will be inspecting everypony here for any changelings,” bellowed a guard. “Now please separate into six lines, here, here, here, here, here, and here!” He pointed to several marked places by the guards at the front of the massive line. “Fillies in this first one, followed by the elderly, then pegasus, unicorns, earth ponies, and lastly changelings. Everypony, quickly move into your lines before the airship lands.”
“Well at least we get to go close to the front,” Palmetto said to Cloud as they stood behind the guard monitoring the pegasi line.”
“Only you two?”
“Yessir,” Cloud answered, slightly irritated. “Are all you ponies so wrapped up in your barracks and patrolling the border that you don’t realize that you haven’t seen many ponies up in the sky?”
Palmetto quickly kicked Cloud’s hoof. “Be nice, they’re just doing their job.”
“By the way, ma’am, your mane seems… different than most.” The guard gave her an inquisitive look.
“Oh yeah, not sure why, but I was born this way. It looks a lot like a palm leaf, huh? I mean I haven’t really seen many, but Bookworm, the librarian said that there used to be a lot of palm trees here in Hoofston, but now most of them are gone.” She happily swished her mane back and forth, smiling at the guard, her brown eyes almost gleaming that she had been noticed for once by a colt. Well, I guess noticed wouldn’t really be the best word to use here, since this colt was really only in charge of keeping her and Cloud in a line, even though Cloud himself could prove to be as difficult as some of the longer lines. “Are there any palm trees where you come from?”
“There really isn’t much wildlife in Canterlot, there are the royal gardens and grounds, but the city itself has been mostly modernized and the streets are cobblestone instead of dirt ones like here. Most of the trees we have up north are oak trees, and we have more grass. Also everypony up north has a cutie mark. I wanted to ask, why are there several ponies here without one?”
Palmetto rolled her eyes at this pony’s ignorance. His attention suddenly seemed worthless after not realizing the hardships someponies have to go through. “You see,” she began sarcastically, “not everypony has the leisurely life here in Hoofston. Everypony from when they’re a filly has to start working to help the village survive, and depending on what kind of pony you are, you do that work. Like I’m a pegasus, so I do the weather things with Cloud.”
“What about me?” Cloud looked over, questioning why he had been brought up.
“Just keep on flirting, Cloud.” The pony next to Cloud in the unicorn line turned pink in her cheeks and gasped, while Cloud laughed and got back to his conversation.
“You see he loves flying, whereas I enjoy it, it isn’t my passion, my special talent. Lots of ponies have this problem here.”
“Well sorry to cut this short,” the guard paused and looked into Palmetto’s eyes.
“Palmetto,” she said.
“Palmetto, but it seems the airship is docking.”
The massive ship had set ground in front of them, lowering a drawbridge where a purple unicorn with two large colts at her side, gracefully walking down the steps.
“Everypony,” she began, using an authoritative voice, “my name is Twilight Sparkle. If everypony cooperates we can finish here in no time. I will be personally checking everypony to see if there are any changelings. Any ponies in the changeling line, by any chance?”
“No, ma’am,” a guard replied, “none fell for that trick this time.”
“Very well,” Twilight’s horn began to glow, lifting a piece of parchment out of her saddle bag. “This list shows every sign that a changeling has changed to mimic the appearance of a pony. Wait, where’s my other list? Spike! Spiiiiike! Where are you? You forgot to pack my list to check if I had all my lists!”
