Chapter 1 - Encountering A Pony
A Little Song
A Side Story to Rekindled Embers
Chapter 1 - Encountering a Pony
Sometimes, Ambri wondered what she was doing.
She was a creature of the wind, not a bottom feeder like the animals she saw on the ground.
Her plumage was magnificent. She had seen ponies admire her as she flew by before. Always, she had fluffed her feathers in pride.
But she still wondered what she was doing in such a world.
Long had a song passed through her family, of an ancient time long gone to the times. Of something called the Friendship of Magic.
She dipped her beak down as she looked upon an area full of ponies.
Her eyes narrowed onto one of the ponies marching around with-
Kill stick. She repressed her urge to screech out loud in anger and fear.
They had killed her family.
It didn’t matter now. As she observed the area, she noticed two ponies shouting at each other. She didn’t understand them, of course, but what was the point of knowing? Ponies were complicated. Ponies fought all the time. Ponies weren’t good.
She remembered the great cities she had passed by as she flew.
A ruined one, filled with darkness and monsters.
She had not stopped there.
She remembered the one filled with stone ponies. The one building which she had watched through a window, looking at ponies treating the stone ponies like gods.
Ambri scoffed. She was above such things. She simply lived to eat, fly, drink and live. But then again…what was life worth living for if she never had chicks?
She heard music.
Tilting her head, Ambri listened. There was a tune coming from one of the cloth triangle houses. It was…familiar.
It felt like one of the ancient songs her kind knew. The songbirds would know better, but she remembered part of the tune. It was, however, lacking.
Lacking in an essential ingredient. The memories and truth that came with the magic of music. Of the magic of singing.
Ambri shivered as she listened. Looking up, she saw thick clouds.
The kind that brought the cold.
Ambri panicked, then. It wasn’t migration season.
And then slammed her head into a tree trunk as she turned to fly away and away from the cold.
Ambri knew she was dead.
With one of her wings broken and her lying on the forest floor, predators would get her soon. The monsters would get her soon.
Worse, ponies would come for her with kill stick. They would go bang, and she’d be dead.
She had seen it happen to her family.
She shivered. She only hoped it would be fast.
Noises.
Something heavy coming through the bushes.
Ambri screeched in fear as something broke through the bushes to loom over her.
It was a pony. A female wingless and hornless one.
The pony gently lifted her up even as Ambri screeched in terror, knowing her end was coming.
The pony’s mouth moved, but Ambri did not know what was being said.
All she knew was that she was dead.
But then she felt a warmth in her wing as a metal thing around the pony’s hoof glowed.
Her wing healed.
Ambri squawked in surprise as the metal thing glowed again.
And then her world changed.
“Hello,” the mare smiled at her. She could understand the pony! “My name’s Smoky. I hope you’re not hurt. I did my best to heal you, but…”
Ambri screeched, then. But then she was surprised when she heard foreign words come out of her beak that she understood.
“Get away from me!” Ambri had shouted.
The pony named Smoky looked confused. “But-”
Ambri struggled free, before flying for the trees and the skies.
She didn’t get far as a vulture slammed into her, grabbing her in its claws.
She had screamed, then. Wait, screamed. What was screaming?
And then there was a flash of light, and she fell down as the vulture screeched and let her go.
The pony rushed forward to catch her, gently making sure she didn’t go splat on the ground. “Oh, that was close!” Smoky breathed. “I wasn’t sure that would work-”
“Why are you helping me, pony of the smoke?” Ambri blabbered. “Are you trying to trick me and keep me and then kill me using kill stick before eating me?”
Smoky frowned. “No! I would never do such a thing to such a magnificent creature like you!”
“You worship stone ponies,” Ambri retorted. “I’ve seen my kind get eaten by bird ponies, or killed by kill stick for stone ponies.”
“You mean statues?” Smoky asked. “Oh, those are the Saints! And we don’t sacrifice living creatures to them.”
Ambri stared at her. “What are you, pony of the smoke?”
Smoky stared back at her. “An Earth Pony?”
“You are one with the earth?” Ambri tilted her head. She decided to trust the pony a little.
“No, no,” Smoky laughed. “It just means we have an affinity for farming. That’s pretty much it. But we can turn the talents into other things! What’s your name?”
Ambri frowned. Name? “Alkdowedaisu,” she said, before pausing. “Ambrisnian. I do not know my name in this language you are somehow making me understand and speak.”
“How about we call you Ambridaisu?” Smoky smiled. “That sounds pretty nice and is the mix of the two you just said!”
Ambri pondered the question. Ambridaisu. It sounded similar to her name, yes.
“Very well,” The newly christened Ambridaisu nodded. “So, pony of the earth and smoke, why are you helping me?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Smoky answered. “Berry?” She offered Ambridaisu a few berries.
A few berries wouldn’t hurt. Ambridaisu tilted her head, before pecking at one hesitantly.
An explosion of flavor was felt.
The next thing she knew, all the berries were gone. “You like them?” Smoky asked.
“Yes, very much,” Ambridaisu nodded.
“Would you like to come back to the outpost with me?” Smoky asked. “It’s about to get very cold, and your wing still needs to mend.”
“I guess,” Ambridaisu replied. “What is an outpost?”
Smoky giggled. “Well, you see, it’s this place where we can stay safe and train-”
Ambridaisu stopped paying attention at safe.
So the ponies could keep her safe?
Maybe she had been mistaken about the ponies after all.
But it was still to be seen. For now, she trusted Smoky.
She might not trust anycreature else.
And so, Ambridaisu grudging perched on Smoky’s shoulder as Smoky trotted somewhere, chatting all the time.
And as they got out of the forest, Ambridaisu stared in wonder at the large gates in front of her.
Maybe she could be safe behind them, after all.
For what creature could fight the ponies’ designs?
Ambridaisu smiled for the first time. Perhaps she could trust ponies.
And as they passed the gates, Ambri hummed a little song.
A song about the Magic of Friendship, whatever that was.
Was it just her, or did Smoky suddenly relax? Had she been that tense the whole time?
Ambridaisu shrugged and continued humming.
They would have to see. For now, she would wait. And she would live to sing once more.
Her mate would have been happy to see her safe.
Author's Note
will be updated as the story progresses in the Rekindled Embers Discord Server!
