Chapters Chapter I - Another Night
Author's Note
This is my first writing project and fan fiction. I had this idea for quite some time and I'm actually glad I decided to hop on it. It's about time I did something I thought of. The chapters will be kinda short however I do plan on trying to make them a few thousand words long later on when I gain some more experience and have others proofread everything. That being said, things are subject to change when I get the chance. Wording and such will be edited to make the story go smoother.
This story is a third person narrative, something I'm not too familiar with when it comes to writing. While that is going on, there is a narrative portion of it with diary entries. Where you'll see how the character views everything. ~~I am very nervous about this.~~
Chapter I - Another Night
Reason This Exists
The reason why this exists is because of my parents. They told me I should document my thoughts, feelings, and daily life. I know the real reason why they suggested this. I’m embarrassed to say and I refuse to mention it. Even in something as private as a diary.
My parents are an odd couple, to say the least. My father was the one who stayed home and took care of me and my mother did the working and bit making. My father was an excellent cook and usually did it with my mother. I would watch them flipping ingredients between each other with their wings. Carrots and heads of lettuce soaring through the air and landing in the partner’s wings, where it would be chopped and prepared for the family. Fortunately, I was named Autumn Glow. My mother couldn't crack jokes about me heating up food but that didn't stop the season jokes. You’d think my father would bring up all the easy and obvious jokes but no, it’s my mother.
My parents said that it was difficult to name me. They had Setting Sun in mind but they thought it was too typical and bland. Then, they went with the colours I donned on my coat. They resembled that of a sky during a sunset. The sky's vibrant orange owns most of my coat and the shining yellow from the sun fades towards my hooves. My mane/tail, however, takes on a darker approach, where the colours are from the clouds at the same time of day. The deep navy blue blended evenly with purple between the clouds. Then a stripe down the middle of the long hair collected the reddish-pink colour you'd see in clouds higher up in the sky. Everything in the sky made it onto me as if an artist used their brush to grab the colours from the sky itself and paint them onto me.
And you’d expect me to be born at sunset where the colours would come out beautifully in the sky. Nope. Was born early in the morning, just as the sun was being risen by Celestia. Heard the story many times by my mother to other ponies. “This mare came out two weeks later than planned. We were worried if something was wrong but just as we were about to check, she decided she wanted out and everything went smoothly. A beautiful, healthy foal was brought into this world by her own accord. A foreshadow to how she is today. But my little Autumn is a hard worker.” (( I was due two weeks before the full pregnancy term was complete. Before. How the fuck do I come out before the term is completed?! ))
Her praise would echo in my head from time to time when I sat alone in my room. Yeah, I do stuff when I feel like it but only when there is no time constraint on it. I shouldn’t really rush to get something done if it can get done anytime. Though, even without a time constraint, some things do need to be done while I’m still young. I know that. ~~I knew that before I got myself into this fuckin' mess.~~
~ ~ ~
The orange mare sighed, looking at the last sentence she wrote that was covered with a thick line through it, the ink still wet. The black stroke slowly sank into the paper, making whatever it was underneath mildly hard to read permanently. Autumn Glow fixed her sky blue eyes for a long time at what she wrote, thinking deeply about what she referenced. Then her attention was brought to the note she had in the margin just next to that paragraph. Perhaps the two events were related. Maybe the fact that she stayed in longer, her destiny, her purpose, completely changed from the original. It was a crazy thought, but her mind said that it could be true.
Her thought process shifted back to normal. She wished that somehow her problem would disappear overnight. She glanced at her flank, as if something magical happened just as she was thinking about it. For a second, she was even hopeful that something so outlandish would have happened. But after processing what she was looking at, Autumn realized nothing changed. Autumn told herself she wasn't being rational, bumping her hoof at her head. She believed this to be her punishment for being so stupid.
Her jaw clenched more and she heard a small snap. Quickly, Autumn put her personalized pen down under the inkwell. The pen was made for her by her parents. She never liked using pencils and enjoyed the look ink had on paper once it dried. And the small bumps on the side of the words written gave whatever she wrote a nice look. Autumn begged and begged her parents to give her something but nothing worked. All through school, she had to deal with the wood and the taste of that awful rubber. It wasn't until Autumn started writing more at home that her parents saw the faces she was making as she wrote and decided to give her something that used ink. They were close to jut getting an eraserless pencil but realised that it would be the same as ink, no way to erase her mistakes. This pen also had small grooves for her teeth so that her fast scribbling wouldn't mess up her writing or make the pun slip out. The grooves were slightly worn but now had a small fracture under it.
Autumn pushed back flapped her wings forward. The gust of wind made the loose paper on her desk kick up and flutter as she flew through her room, facing the soft ceiling. Autumn wondered how it was molded perfectly by professionals. A flat, stable roof over her head. She thought of the skills the ponies had in planning and building. How they were able to visualize the layout of the whole house and knew how everything would be able to stay up without a problem.
With near perfect accuracy, the short mare landed with a bounce on her bed. The window, next to her bed, showed her the night sky. The tiny balls of light shone in her eyes. She removed her spectacles while looking out the window. The stars suddenly had thin and pointy thorns poking out in four directions. She smiled at how they looked, reminding her of her childhood doodles when she was bored during school. Despite not liking the taste off the eraser, she pushed her dislikes aside to draw whatever she imagined.
But the smile didn’t last long as she was reminded that somepony could have an amazing talent to draw beautiful pictures. Or even a talent to identify where they were in the world just by just looking up at the night sky when they’re lost. With another deep exhale of air, she rolled over away from the window. She didn’t bother putting the blankets over her as Autumn drifted off to sleep. “Someday,” she wondered, “This will be a funny episode of my life.”
Her eyelids fluttered shut and in a few minutes, Autumn Glow was quietly snoring. Her thoughts quieted down and she soon dreamed of soaring through space.
Chapter II - Next Morning
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. Chapter III - Outdoor Activities
Setting Sun went outside only to be greeted by her girlfriend and not the friend she originally planned to be with. With a confused look, she asked the mare in front of her “Where is Sugar Rush?” before getting her answer.
To the left, the tall stallion ran towards Setting Sun and tackled her with a hug. And with a shining smile, he shouted, “Hello, Sunny Bunny!” He stood over her as she laid on her back. Looking up, she had a clear view of his crimson eye. His other eye, usually covered with his mane, was totally missing from its socket. When Setting Sun first brought up his missing eye, all he said was “What eye?” and it was left at that.
Soul, now looking back at the two ponies, walked over to Setting Sun, trapped under the tall stallion. Crouching down, she grinned and gave Sun a kiss. In a soft whisper, she greeted the colourful mare. “Hello, darling.” Her voice was as flirty as ever. She could never fail to make Sun’s heart stop everytime she spoke.
“Hello, Soul.” Sun stammered out of her throat. “So, you’re free?” Sun shimmied out from under Sugar Rush, who was still unaware that he was pinning her down.
“Yeah, glad about that, too. We could swing by your room later tonight.” Soul offered a hoof to Setting Sun. When she grabbed on, Soul didn’t hesitate to lift her girlfriend up with magic. Carefully, she let Sun get on the ground before releasing her. She gave a nod of thanks before turning to Sugar Rush, who was still smiling a little too hard.
“So, what’s the pl -” Sun was interrupted by a rolled up piece of paper that was pulled out of Sugar’s eye socket, almost cartoonishly.
“Alright! So I was reminded of a story I was told when I was late to getting my cutiemark. There were three ponies who had started a club dedicated to finding their cutiemarks called The Cutiemark Crusaders .” He raised a hoof to the air and said their name with power. He’d call it emphasis and dramatic build but Sun and Soul didn’t see the drama in it. Sugar Rush continued his speech. “These three ponies would go up into their treehouse and would, uhm,” Sugar stuttered through his finishing words. “Do the thing.”
Sun and Soul chuckled at each other before Sun decided to finish his thoughts. “They’d sit and formulate some plans in the early hours of the afternoon to get their cutiemarks. Trying out every possible activity that would make them something special. And everyday they’d go back to to the drawing board and ponder of other plans. Don’t worry, Sugar, I know what you mean. But what does this have to do with your list?”
Not paying any piece of mind to Sun’s comment, Sugar opened the scroll to show a messy, disorganised list. Words littered the paper, most of which were crossed out save for a handful. “This is a list of literally everything you’ve done, right down to the smallest thing.”
“It looks like a disorganized pile of shit.” Soul commented. Sugar, however, continued while paying mind to her comment.
“As much as a pile of shit this looks, I can assure you both that this is controlled chaos. We have everything on one sheet of paper that we can keep track of. And from one glance, we can see that there are plenty of things Sun hasn’t tried.” Sugar explained quickly. He pointed to one particular word that wasn’t crossed out. Sun got closer to read what Sugar was planning to do first.
“Theft?!” Sun blurted out. “You want me to steal something to see if that , of all things, is my special talent?” Her eyes were wide and full of disbelief. “I understand that you are off the walls but this is ridiculous!”
Sugar put a hoof up as if to hold Sun from talking more. “I may be off the walls but we must try everything. And everything means everything .” He sounded less silly and much more stern.
Soul walked up closer between the two ponies. “Surely,” she began. “You can’t be serious.”
Back to his smiling self, Sugar said in his normal tone of voice, “My name isn’t Surely but I am serious.” He rolled up the piece of paper and shoved it back into his missing eye. Sun and Soul both looked at each other with worry as Sugar danced ahead.
Chapter V - Brainstorming Over Easy
“We’ll have the usual morning routine.” Sugar told the waiter. With a nod, the waiter walked to the back room. Sun had her face in the table as Soul tried to silently comfort her.
“Fmmmmp.” Sun yelled into the wood. She could feel the hope slipping out of her with every attempt. She wishes she didn’t have to go through this.
“Cheer up, Sunny! You have plenty of other things you haven’t tried yet. Like… uhm…” Sugar paused and visibly freezes in thought. Sun looks up at Sugar before planting her face back into the table.
“Sugar is right, sweetie, you have options. Just need to keep thinking and trying.” Soul said with fake hope. She knew how long Sun was doing this and how dedicated she had gotten to even figure out what her special talent was. “It’s no time to give up now!”
Muffled through the table, Sun groaned. “It seems like I should.” Then she suddenly shot up with wide eyes. Her pupils shook and iris swished with each jitterish movement. “I thought of the worst thing possible.”
Sou land Sugar bolted upright and simultaneously asked “What?” without breaking eye contact with Sun, who refused to make any movements. She had a scared look in her eyes which meant something was wrong. Sun was usually laid back, save for extreme circumstances where her emotions would take over one hundred percent. But this look in her eyes meant that something wasn’t good.
“The Everfree Forest.” Sun grimly and slowly spoke.
There was a pause between the group. Nopony spoke a single word for a good few minutes before finally…
“You’re a fucking loony, you know that, right?” Sugar replied. It was out of character, even for him. Now attention was towards Sugar for his vulgar language. “What? I’m not allowed to curse?”
After a couple blinks, Soul returned to the topic. “You really think the Everfree Forest will have your answer? It’s way too dangerous to be a place where you would search for your cutiemark.”
The waiter came back with everyone’s meals. The only thing Sun had was a cup of water and a pile of pancakes with various fruits on it. The other two had 3 plates in front of them all full. Salads, sandwiches, and even pancakes. It was quite a mouthful to Setting Sun but the other two ponies always skipped their lunch and went straight to dinner.
Sun, taking a bite out of her food, spoke after the waiter left them alone. “Yeah, it’s the only place we haven’t tried and I’m sure there’s something in there for me to do.”
“But…” Soul retorted worryingly, “There are creatures in there who will hurt you more than whatever you plan to do in there. I don’t want you hurt, Sunny. Or worse.” She dodged the obvious with trepidation in her voice.
Soul didn’t ever want to think that her girlfriend would be mauled to death or get trapped in a ravine with a rock pinning her in there. Or at all in danger. She mattered to her way more than she lets on. If it wasn’t for Sun, she wouldn’t be out of the house at all. Too scared to face the real world, she hid in her home. Using it as a shop so she can keep up paying bills. But even if her home was a shop, she had ideas of a robbery followed by home invasion. No matter what, she had something worry her. But since Sun came in her life, all of her thoughts were different. She had Sun to lean on when things get rocky in her own life. She didn’t worry if she was intruded on because Sun would be there in her head saying stand up against them. Soul found strength in Sun and it was what drove her to be open.
With a full mouth, Sun consoled her girlfriend’s fears. “Don’t worry, hon, I’ll be fine. You’ll be there with me.”
Soul almost choked on her food. “What?!” The whole restaurant filled with eight other ponies turned to the root of the sound and Soul sank into the booth. “You’re crazy.” She hissed out.
Sun turned to Sugar. “You’re coming too, you know.”
Sugar suddenly looked around in his head for a reason to not go. “I have to clean up the… stove! Yeah, it’s really messy in there. And I have a big order to fill today. It’s really big. Like, super big. Big. Yeah.” He began to shake in his seat.
“You need to work on lying.” Sun patted his head. “You’ll be fine, dude. Besides, we shouldn’t do it today. We need to plan and stock up.”
The other two ponies sigh with relief but it lasted only for the moment. “My next free day is a few days from now, so maybe then we can go in the morning. Better for the sun to be up rather than down when making this trip.”
Soul protested. “Maybe a few more days after that, I don’t think I’m mentally ready.” She continued to eat without adding another word. Sugar didn’t say anything either, just a nod of the head.
“Alright, then a week from today we’ll go. A few hours after Celestia raises the sun, I’ll be knocking on your door first, Soul.” She kissed Soul’s cheek and whispered softly into her ear that made her blush hard.
Sugar jumped in. “When will you come by my house?” Not enjoying how attention shifted all between the two mares.
Sun made eye contact with Sugar, looking only at his one eye. “I’ll be around an hour later. Alright?”
Satisfied with what attention he got, he gave another silent nod and went back to his food.
“Listen, I know this is the worst possible thing to try but it’s the one thing we haven’t given the time of day. We shouldn’t just write it off as impossible or too dumb to try. It’s a possibility. And I promise we won’t spend so long in there. Three hours at the least, okay?” Sun added to her proposal. “And we won’t be too far from the entrance.”
She was trying very hard to convince the other two that everything will be fine and her proposal worked as both ponies nodded while chewing on their food.
Nopony said another word the rest of the meal. There wasn’t any tension between the three of them but everyone at the table knew this was going to be a risky operation.
Author's Note
This chapter was a bitch to write as I didn't know what to have them all say but I got it done and I can move on.
Chapter IV - Plan of Disaster
The three ponies arrived at the market, Sun and Soul still trailing behind Sugar who was a little too eager to do something illegal. They all stop short when they came to the shops. Sugar turns around to the other two and smiles. “Okay! So, here is the plan of attack!” He pulls a map of a nearby music shop out of his missing eye and directs attention to the many arrows pointing around the large shape at the center. “You, Sunny, will go around the back and try to sneak in to the storage room where all of the best albums. What you need to do is,” adding air quotes to his next word, “borrow… a couple albums.”
Sun interjected. “I’m assuming you need more music for your shop.”
Sugar switched gears and retorted. “That’s besides the point, my dear. That is just a bonus for the work we are doing.”
“We,” Soul spoke sternly. “Are doing something illegal, Sugar. Ill-ee-gull.” Soul got up in front of Sugar. “If anything, we try this and then return the items. If you want them, pay for them. Understand? Even if this is to help Sunny find her special thing, we aren’t crooks.”
Sugar, his smile unwavering, thought hard about what she said. His face twisted and adjusted into different emotions, showing how many ideas he went through before… “DING!” A metaphorical light bulb appeared above his head. “If she gets caught, we make a run for it!” He flashed a grin of self-congratulations.
Soul and Sun looked at each other and shrugged. “Alright, I guess it’s time to give it a go.” Mumbling, Sun appended to her own confirmation. “I got no better ideas anyway.”
Sugar jump in excitement. “That’s the spirit!” He picked up Sun with his magic and threw her towards the store. “Now go out there and make papa proud!” Soul looked at Sugar awkwardly.
“Her actual papa won’t like this.”
“So, we just don’t say anything, simple. Right, Soul?” Sugar whistled and swayed in his spot waiting on Sun to return.
* * * *
Sun flew with celerity to the back of the music shop, keeping low to the ground and diving around other ponies. Landing at the door, she took a deep breath. Slowly exhaling, Sun thought of calming thoughts to steady herself. She couldn’t fathom what she was doing for her own cutiemark. This was ridiculous, she thought in front of the door. “Let’s get this over with.” She breathed out.
Biting the knob, Sun pulled down and pulled back slowly. The door squealed on it’s hinges as she pulled it open. Sun winced at the sound, hoping that the store owner wouldn’t hear.
Opening the door just half way, she slid in and carefully closed it with a back hoof, leaving it ajar. Sun crept through the back room, looking for something worth “borrowing” for Sugar Rush. As she snuck around, she viewed every vinyl disc there was, searching for something on the top of the hits. She didn’t notice the grey stallion with a mane of sienna and saddle brown, coming into the back room where she hid herself. They were both on opposite sides of the room with enough discs and boxes to block each other’s view of the other. But Sun heard a hoofstep and knew she was in trouble.
Treading carefully, she picked up a few albums from in front of her, happy that the racks blocked a direct view of her. And if it wasn’t for her small stature, she probably could’ve been louder. But she knew now was not the right time to wipe the sweat off of from her brow just yet, the steps got closer, and closer. She knew she’d be caught at this point. The door is just across the way but that unicorn was facing the same direction. She needed a distraction, and fast.
Without thinking, she took a box and let it hit the ground, hoping it would catch his attention and draw him away from sight. But she realised she would have to do some outstanding maneuvers to keep out of his line of sight when he does turn the corner.
The unicorn looked towards the sound and calmly but cautiously trotted to the source. Waiting for the right moment, Sun prepared herself to make a break for the door. She listened to the steps as they came around to her side and darted for the door. Her own hoofsteps were loud and the stallion came around swiftly to the door where he saw Sun just about to get out the door. She dropped the records and jumped out.
“Get back here and take your punishment!” The stallion yelled to Sun as she ran away just before he gave chase to her.
Setting Sun’s short legs hindered her speed. The unicorn was getting closer and closer to her, shouting. “Get back here, you orange-yellow pegasus!”
Sugar Rush and Melodic Soul saw her coming and started running themselves. Sun soon realized she could fly faster than run and took off the ground, catching up to her partners-in-crime. Once she was in earshot, Sun spoke first. “Sugar Rush, this was the worst idea ever. What made you think I would get a cutiemark in thievery?”
Sugar, who was running and laughing, corrected Sun. “It wasn’t supposed to be thievery but sneakery!” They headed a bit farther into town before stopping to catch their breath. Soul rolled over and tried to keep herself from hyperventilating. Sugar was doing just fine and Sun was just a tad out of breath. “So, did it work?”
Sun and Soul looked at Sugar before Soul asked, “What’s next on the list? And nothing illegal, understand?” Just as he was pulling the list out. After looking at it for just a few seconds, Sugar put it back and replied with a flat tone. “Nope. I got nothing.”
Sun rolled over next to Soul and groaned. “This fuckin’ blows.” She huffed out. “There’s gotta be something that isn’t illegal. Or will get me in trouble.”
Sugar went over to the two mares and laid on top of them. “How about food? I’m starving!”