Wandering Music

An Unexpected Stop

The train had been chugging along for a day or so, heading out of the city and into the country side. I leaned against the window, feeling the cold glass on my cheek as I watched the trees and hills roll by.

I still felt said that I had left my home in the city. I mean, Manehatten was my home; it was where I had grown up. It was the only place i really knew. It was the place where my sister had died for pete's sake. But the more I thought whether or not it was a good idea, the more the old feelings of pain and misery arose again, and I shook my head, deffinatly sure that I had made the right choice.

But as I stared out the window, I was presented with an even more daunting question entered my head. Where was i gonna go? How far was I gonna have to travel before I found a place that I could call home. it kind of scared me, but i wasn't gonna let that stop me.

The rocking of the train was starting to make my eyes heavy, and even though i fought to stay awake, i soon drifted off to sleep.

There was a sharp hiss that filled my ears, and a lurching sent me tumbling to the floor of the car with a small yelp. After a second or to to compose myself, I rolled onto my hooves, shaking my head and peering out the window.

The train had come to a stop outside a small town, mainly comprised of small houses and shops. A few of the building stood out, cause of their brightly colored paint jobs. What surprised me the most was the fact that there was even a cloud house!

I saw the conductor walking by, and I opened my window to ask him why we had stopped.

"Train's broken," he said fatly in his gruff voice. "We have to keep the train here until we get it fixed"

"How long will that take?" I asked.

"About a week. We have to get the part from Bitsburgh and then replace the broken piece."

Ugh. Great, a week stuck here, in the middle of who-knows-where.

With a sigh, I took my things and climbed off the train. I looked around as i started heading into the town. it looked nice enough. Something I could kind of get used to. There were a few ponies around, just doing day to day things. Like cleaning their house, tending their garden, and just chatting. it was basic small town life really.

I have been told I can be a bit spacey sometimes. i usually disagree, but today I realized it was true when I ran onto somepony. I fell back with an "Oof" as my stuff tumbled to the ground. The pony I ran into gave a shocked "Eep" as a book landed in front of me.

i looked up to see who I had ran into. I saw a Mare, maybe a little older than me, with a violet body, a long mane with three lighter shades of purple, and soft, blue eyes. A quick glance up and I saw a horn poking through her mane, and I noticed a white star on her flank.

"Ooh! I'm so sorry. Are you ok??" she asked me in a hurried voice, concern filling her eyes as she got onto her hooves.

"I'm fine. And trust me, it's my fault. I tend to space out sometimes; I just didn't look where I was going."

I bent to pick my stuff up off the ground, and she levitated the book into a saddle bag she had with her.

"You must be new here," she said with quizical look. "I don't remember seeing anypony like you before."

"Yep; my name's Silver Note," I said with a smile. "I just got off the train. things broken, so I'm gonna be stuck here for a week."

"My name's Centari" she said with a smile

"Ahh, the closet star to us"

"You know astronomy??" she asked, eyes wide

"Nah, just a little bit that my mom taught me" I said with a cheesy grin.

"Ah. Well, it sucks that you're stuck here for a bit. If you'd be ok with it, I have an extra room in the library if you need a place to stay"

"Well, i guess it's better than nothi- wait a minute, you live in a Library?"

"Well, yeah," Centari said with a slight blush. "It's kind of been in my family for two or three generations now. But come on, i'll show you where it is."

She walked off, and I followed her. Soon we arrived at a large tree. There were doors, windows, ledges, everything that set it apart as a kind of habitable home. A large sign out front read "Ponyville Library."

"So, this town's called Ponyville?" I asked, walking past the sign.

"Yep. Nice little place isn't it. My grandmother moved here years ago when she was about my age. She lived here in this library, same with my mom. My family are huge bookworms."

The smell of ink and parchment lingered in the air as I walked in. It looked nice inside, and I was a bit surprised when I saw all the books. I set my things down and took a few minutes to look at the books. They were all magic books: spell books, potion books, and so on.

"What's with all these magic books," I asked Centari. "I usually thought unicorns could only do simple magic, like levitation and such."

"Well, not really," she said, levitating a few books back onto the shelf. "Some Unicorns have a talent for magic in general, and can do so much. My grandmother and Mom were like that. My grandma was Princess Celestia's faithful student, actually."

"Whoa" he said as he continued to look at all the books.

"Well, the room I told you about is through here" She said, gesturing through a set of doors.

I looked to where she was pointing with her hoof an nodded. I grabbed my things and headed for the door. i nudged it open, and gave a yell as something brown flew in front of my face. I scrambled back and fell onto my things.

"Oh, there you are Edalpo," said Centari with a giggle; I looked up and saw a brown owl perched on a shelf next to her. "Silver, this is Edalpo. He's my assistant here in the library."

"Nice to meet you" I said as I climbed back up onto my hooves.

"Who" was the only reply I got.

I walked  into the room and looked around. It was a decent size. Not really to small, and not that big. With a small nod, I sighed. This would do nicely for a week.