Entry: Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

I’ve always been a loner.

Yet, I suppose I ought to stop saying that nowadays. Thing is, I’m meeting new ponies and engaging in idle chatter almost every day now, thanks to my good friend Pinkie Pie. Oh, yes, and I’m also madly in love with Twilight Sparkle.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. We just finished Bonbon’s hydroelectric dam today- the one Twilight keeps calling a beaver dam, though I get the idea she’s doing it on purpose.

Especially after she made some design suggestions related to expansibility a couple weeks back. That had both me and Bonbon staring at her like she’d grown an extra head- after which she’d unearthed the deed to a plot of land the size of a large city, and the Celestia-given instructions to build a worldgate array. They’re insanely complex, but I was able to simplify them- and reduce power requirement- and our calculations indicate that this hydroelectric dam will still provide only about half of the power necessary to run that thing at full capacity.

But anyways, I noticed Twilight has been writing a journal, so why shouldn’t I? Here I am.

I should probably explain who I am, shouldn’t I?

And not the way Pinkie does. For some reason, she insists that the best way to describe me is a ‘reader OC’, whatever that is. Reader Of Cannons, maybe? But I don’t do anything with cannons. Except design, build, and maintain her new party cannons for her, I suppose.

As far as I am concerned, though, there is no simple way to describe me. I’m simply… me.

Whenever I tell Bonbon that, she promptly tells me that Pinkie would say I’m ‘shaped like myself’. But of course I’m Shooting Star-shaped, I am Shooting Star!

But anyways, why don’t we start at the beginning?

It’s at about this point that I realize that I wasn’t really living until after I’d encountered Twilight, but since I did that in Celestia’s School, I should probably go even earlier than that.

Way back in the beginning, I was a pretty unique Unicorn colt. I was shy- oh, so very shy. People were scary. I could never predict exactly what they would do- especially those three bullies in Magic Kindergarten. They… still are, actually- but while Twilight and Bonbon might not be very good with ponies, and Pinkie simply doesn’t understand, Bonbon’s marefriend Lyra Heartstrings is a people-pony and- possibly more importantly- a certified counselor. She’s helping me understand, deep down inside, that I don’t have to understand, and that I don’t have to be afraid of the unknown. I’ve known that for over a decade, but she’s actually convincing my subconscious to know that. It’s helping- I might actually be decently functional in another few years.

Though I suppose, even when I was a colt, I did get to the point where I could predict the bullies, to an extent. They became less scary as a result- I knew how to deal with them, get them to do what I wanted, really. I didn’t laugh at the time- I’ve always been good at restraining my emotional outbursts- but one of the highlights of my foalhood was convincing the three bullies to pile up on top of each other to challenge a visiting filly to a game of cloud hockey.

Suffice it to say, they lost. The anemic pegasus on the bottom of the tower could perform the necessary cloudwalking, but the tiny little colt wasn’t strong enough to move very much at all with the stunted unicorn on his back- or the brick-like earth pony on top. The filly they’d challenged- who, if I remember right, was the Rainbow Dash- couldn’t stop laughing, and won anyways.

That’s probably unrelated to how Rainbow is now the proud holder of three separate world records: Largest wild storm to ever be cleared single-hoofed before the professionals could so much as arrive; most time spent napping whilst engaged in the single-hoofed clearing of a wild storm; and fastest ever single-hoofed Cloud Hockey victory against the Cloudsdale Thunderbolts, a well-known professional Cloud Hockey team.

I could never figure anypony else out nearly as well as I did those bullies. Maybe it was because they had very simple minds?

In any case, because I had so much difficulty predicting and interacting with ponies, I turned to that which I could predict: Books. And magic.

Because of this, the latter half of Magic Kindergarten was easy. I continued studying magic, even after acing my final exam a year early. It was around six months after that that I started experimenting with magic. I discovered that I could enchant an object- almost any object, though some were easier than others- to give it an autonomous, entirely predictable, behavior.

Oh, I remember this part so well. One fateful night, I had crafted and emplaced an enchantment on my favorite teddy that would have it help me study. How? Easy- it would read a book I placed in front of it, then summarize it to me when I asked later.

I had no clue that such an enchantment was supposed to be impossible. In fact, I had no clue that the first book I had it read happened to be the one that would have told me that! Well, until I asked it for the summary… and it summarized the book, quite well. I distinctly remember dropping my jaw. It had done exactly as I had expected- and informed me that the enchantment powering it was flat-out impossible.

But it obviously worked, because it did its job. That’s when I realized I had a gift for enchanting. And, coincidentally, when my cutie mark appeared.

I was torn, internally, by its appearance. On the one hoof, it’s a sign that I’ve found my calling- and something to celebrate.

On the other hoof, it’s something to celebrate. With other ponies. I was afraid of how they might react.

My parents didn’t give me any time to contemplate it, though. Literally moments later, they entered my room to deliver the news that they’d signed me up for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns- and I’d been accepted.

Of course, they saw my cutie mark.

I… I was hiding in the corner for a week after that happened.

Then another week after that entrance exam for Celestia’s School. I think it was supposed to be difficult, but the only difficulty I had was in hatching the egg. I was able to craft an enchantment capable of hatching it, and even placed it on the egg- but I lacked the power to operate the thing. Probably because it was a wooden egg, and I had designed the enchantment to hatch a very real dragon from it.

Fortunately- or unfortunately, to me- I had already passed the exam, even before they brought the egg out. I remember hearing an echoing crash as I was leaving the school; a dragon had suddenly burst through the roof!

Many years later, just last week in fact, I was to discover that that egg had been taken out- the unicorns hadn’t spotted any enchantments, they must have been blind- for another examinee. That examinee- Twilight Sparkle- had inadvertently powered my enchantment, hatched the egg, and gotten her cutie mark. Yes, Twilight thinks it’s funny too.

But back on topic. While I was studying at Celestia’s School, I did come out of my shell, a bit. All these students were similarly unpredictable- but they were actually somewhat predictable. Every last one of them, with few enough exceptions that I could ignore them, would go to class, leave class, study, socialize, go home, and repeat the next day.

There was one exception I didn’t ignore, though. A little purple filly, with a starburst cutie mark, who would spend her entire day- save only classes, and those times when she would disappear for Celestia knows what- in the library, reading. And, occasionally, tending to her baby dragon.

This was Twilight Sparkle.

She would always do the same thing, without fail. Well, there was a tiny bit of variance whenever she reached the library, or would hit the end of her book, or want another reference- in that she’d go hunt for another book. This became so predictable that, once, I set up a secondary enchantment on my teddy bear, telepathically controlled by me- and, since I shared a class with her, I analyzed the class material… and predicted what books she’d go hunting for. I then followed her to the library… and congratulated myself when she accepted the book my teddy held out for her and went straight to her table, without browsing the shelves at all.

She was my foalhood crush. In my eyes, both at the time and now, looking back on it, I had over a thousand perfect dates, each and every one ruined by some letter that either arrived or needed to be sent. Every time one arrived, a courier would march in to deliver it to “Miss Twilight Sparkle”, and she would accept it in similar manner to how she accepted my teddy’s books every day: She’d just take it, and start reading. More often than not, the messenger would clear his throat, possibly prod her. She’d look up, blink like she’d forgotten he was there, and thank him for the delivery, before asking what he was waiting for.

Whenever she needed to send a letter… she’d write it, then tote it out of the room. I never followed her; she’d always start by looking left, right, and left again, just outside the door, before turning to go right. I’d always groan inside whenever I saw her pull out her quill and start scribbling on a scroll that weighed any less than twenty pounds- it meant she’d have to go and spend half an hour or so tracking down somepony to carry the letter.

I remember, there was just once that I managed to get her to break her pattern. No, twice, but they’re connected. I’d looked at her baby dragon- she really cares about him- and crafted a specialized enchantment. Then, one time when she went to send a letter- it was the third one of the day, so I had at least three hours before she would get back- I applied it to him.

Four hours later, she had another letter she needed to send… but, like me, she knew she’d never get a fourth sent today, so she set it aside. The last dozen times she’d done that, she’d taken it home with her, and simply not had it when she returned the next day.

The last seven or eight times she’d done that, her little drake- who had taken to seeing what he could burn with his yellow-orange flames- had slipped onto the table when she wasn’t looking, found it, and blown flame at it.

Exactly as I had expected, as an unavoidable side effect of my enchantment, his flames had turned green. The scroll had caught ablaze- and Twilight had noticed right about the time the sudden wave got halfway down the scroll; even the drake- Spike- had been surprised, letting out a yelp of alarm.

Twilight had stared as the last of the scroll, wax and all, vanished in a puff of green smoke that then disappeared into thin air. She’d spent the last half hour that the library was open, horn flashing intermittently, trying to figure out where it had gone. She’d ignored me when I approached, hoping she’d ask.

The very next time she had a letter to send, she’d turned towards the door- then frozen, and turned towards her dragon… and tentatively offered him the scroll. He’d blown his green flame on it, for the same result as the day before. She’d studied the effect, then scribbled down another message and vanished out the door with it, looking excited.

The thing was, the enchantment was a bit of an interesting one. I had given Spike the ability to send any message to its intended recipient by blowing flames on it. Nowadays, he still has that ability, but it’s no longer an enchantment- it seems he’s internalized the magic, enabling him to transport anything… and control whether his flames will transport whatever he’s blowing them on, or burn it. And the color of the flames. It’s really quite astounding.

But of course, it was not a one-way enchantment- if the receiving end was a unicorn, they could- in theory- catch onto the enchantment handle that floated around at the appearance location for a few seconds, anchor it, and use it to send a reply. Given that my enchantments seemed to be invisible to most other unicorns, I had been immensely surprised- just as surprised as Twilight, I think- when somepony did just that, about a week after the first letter. Twilight had been studying as usual, when Spike suddenly let out a massive belch, releasing a puff of green smoke that then formed up into a scroll. He still does that, though as it’s not from my enchantment anymore, I don’t know if it still works the same way. He tells me he can control who he sends stuff to, but he doesn’t get any indication of who’s sending him stuff, just what it is. He can also control whether he actually receives something someone is sending him or not, but hasn’t had occasion to refuse anything since the only one that’s ever sent him stuff is Celestia.

Anyways, Twilight had crawled slowly back to her table, deftly picked the scroll up, opened it, read it… then promptly scribbled another message and had him burn it. From that day forward, she never had to leave the room to deliver a message- nor were our silent dates interrupted by another messenger. She’d still occasionally send and receive messages, but those interruptions never bothered us.

Then, just days after Spike learned his first word- “Star”, the second half of my name- we both graduated… and I never thought I’d see her again. I regretted never exchanging so much as a single word with her; I had no clue where she might have gone, how to reach her.

But for as little as I had talked to her, I had come out of my shell enough to no longer be so frightened by ponies. I was still quite shy, definitely- but I was no longer afraid of any interaction whatsoever. As such, I was… functional, in society. Marginally. I was able to land myself a job without much difficulty- probably helped that it was at a library- and get an apartment. It wasn’t too great of an apartment, but it worked.

And Celestia, did it work. By the time I got comfortable with my routine, I had nearly everything in the apartment, up to and including the front door, enchanted to do my bidding. My bed would wake me up in the morning; my bathroom door would transform itself into a mirror so I could watch my manebrush brush my mane and tail all on its own. My stove, pots, and pans would cook breakfast by themselves, and have it ready right at the very moment I reached the kitchen. My teddy- I still have it- would hold whatever book I was reading most recently, so I could read it while my cutlery fed me of their own accord. My front door would then wave goodbye as I left, before locking itself. I remember more than one pony staring at it, though Ponyville ponies don’t stare when my door does that in Ponyville; apparently, the strange and unexpected is to be expected here.

When I got back home, it would get interesting again. The mailbox would hand me the day’s mail, and my front door would welcome me home, opening itself for me. If I felt like going shopping, my saddlebags would prepare themselves, and my teddy would offer them to me, after which I’d head out- and the door would wave, and welcome me home again when I got back. After any of that was over with, the teddy would take my saddlebags- if present- and go stow any groceries. If that wasn’t available for it to do, or once it finished that, it’d go grab my book again and hold it up for me to read while I ate dinner- again, lovingly prepared by the pots and pans themselves. Then I’d go to my study, deal with the mail, study for a while, maybe experiment some more, and finally go to bed, where my bed would sing me to sleep.

And repeat.

That’s all I needed, for a couple of years. Then… I’m not sure exactly what brought it on, but I felt the need to have another pony in my life. I remember spotting an advertisement for a penpal program on the corkboard in the library, and signing up for it.

I remember the details of the program very, very clearly. They’d send my mailing address- and basic bio, like a list of interests- to just one other pony… and they’d send me the mailing address and stuff of a second pony. Thus, in theory, I could get to know two other ponies.

It… didn’t quite work out that way. I never got anything from whoever got my address.

On the other hoof, I spent around six hours coming up with a decent initial letter- it was only three inches, or so, on a small scroll- to send to Bonbon, the one whose address I got. According to that bio, she was an earth pony mare who enjoys candy making, alchemy, and investigation.

It’s… an interesting set of interests.

What I got back a couple days later was alarming. It was long! She wrote two full pages about herself!

Fortunately, and this one was fortunate to me too, I could treat the letter almost like I do the books- read it, study it, formulate a response. I didn’t have to worry about unpredictable responses to my taking time to contemplate my response. I didn’t have to worry about any of that, allowing me to play the part of a social butterfly with relative ease.

Thinking back on it, I do believe that’s when my life truly got started. Bonbon was an amazing mare. She actually sympathized with me- I’d been afraid I’d never find anypony that could do that!

Then one day, a couple days after I sent around thirty pages- I didn’t count- detailing my enchantments around my house, she sent me an… odd request.

She wanted… enchanted vanilla extract. She wanted it to, when cooked into something sugary (to serve as the power source of the enchantment), work a very specific result, related to the muscle control of whoever ate it.

It took me three days to craft the enchantment, then I sent her the single, two ounce vial I had enchanted.

Three days after I sent it off, rather than the usual two, I earned a scolding from my front door for rushing; I’d crashed into it before it had time to open. But, I had a letter, from Bonbon. Once inside, I gave it to my teddy to hold while I ate dinner.

She’d started out by thanking me for the vanilla extract… before describing what she had done with it.

She’d told me that some of the processes were too dangerous, too secret, for her to reveal. But she’d eventually turned it into a nice, chocolate taffy.

A chocolate taffy that she’d fed to somepony else in town.

When I read that, I’d immediately worried that I’d helped her hurt somepony… but then she explained what it did.

That pony could see. Her normally uncontrollable eyes had suddenly gotten in line, behaved… and let her see where she was going. Her vision still wasn’t perfect, but she was no longer blind.

I actually remember dropping my jaw after that. I’d… cured the incurable. Well… I hadn’t yet, but at the time, nopony in Equestria knew how to help poor Derpy Hooves after that… Bonbon and Derpy both call it a ‘mishap’ with Doctor Hooves, but I think the term ‘disaster’ describes it more accurately. The effect had only lasted a few hours, but it was enough. Bonbon had speculated that repeated exposure to the enchantment, combined with the magic of the alchemy she’d worked into the candies, would be enough to make it last. And, as I didn’t- couldn’t have known then- I now know that it has. Derpy can see, twenty-four seven. Without having to regularly take her… candies. I still have difficulty processing that; it was candies, not medicine, that made her better.

In any case, at the bottom of her letter, she’d included a check for a rather substantial sum of bits.

We continued writing to each other after that, completely uninterrupted. It wasn’t too long later she asked for a manebrush that would record a spoken conversation- then, on command, regurgitate it. That one was easy, but she paid me handsomely for it, even though I never asked for money.

There were a few… other little gadgets she asked me to make. The quill that could write on multiple scrolls at once was a fun one; so was the quill that could duplicate an existing scroll. The book that could inconspicuously populate its own pages with the contents of another book was a little bit suspicious… and I drew my line at the magnifying glass that could look through walls. What was she using this stuff for?

She’d explained… and asked me to keep it secret. She’s a Secret Agent- and everything she’s asked me for, save only the vanilla extract, has been something she’s used extensively in her work. I swore for her that I would keep the secret for her, and enchanted her magnifying glass.

She’d then apologized for taking advantage of me so much- even though I wasn’t all that worried about it, as I had long since acquired more bits than I knew what to do with- and invited me to visit her in Ponyville sometime.

It took me about two weeks before I was willing to do that. I traveled down on the day before the nine hundred and ninety-ninth Summer Sun Celebration, met her at the station- the station at which she introduced me both to Lyra, her other penpal turned marefriend, and Derpy Hooves, who hugged and thanked me like crazy for the part I’d played in making the delicious candies that let her see straight.

I will admit, I was a little- well, alright, a lot- shy with them. Especially when the pegasus exploded all over me with her praise. But Bonbon was familiar; even in person, she tends to speak in a fairly specific, almost formulaic, manner. I now know that’s deliberate. She might not be a people pony, but she does know how to put the ponies around her at ease, and she is aware of my… difficulty. Still, though, she wasn’t nearly as scary as the other two so, once Bonbon sent Derpy on her way, I was able to calm down quite a bit. Lyra, while rather wildly unpredictable, did strike me immediately as a ‘people pony’- and did seem to grasp my issue fairly quickly, positioning herself on Bonbon’s other side as we walked, to minimize the required interaction with me. When she spoke to me directly, or expected an answer from me, she spoke carefully… and waited with deliberate patience, though unlike with Bonbon, I could tell it was deliberate. I think she was trying to help me feel more comfortable around her randomness.

It was another year after that- just after the Summer Sun Celebration- that I moved to Ponyville. It’s a nice little town; I’ve been here for almost a month and, while the strange and unexpected is indeed normal here, I’m absolutely loving this place.

And no, not just because of Twilight. I didn’t know she was living here until she knocked on my door to apologize for The Pink, who had apparently been on vacation in Cloudsdale with Rainbow when I visited last year. But she did, and when I opened the door, I immediately saw the recognition in her eyes- and it was clear to me that she understood me in a way that nobody else did.

Except Bonbon. I guess the grapevine hadn’t already told the spymare that I was in town, so Twilight had that pleasure- and Bonbon, naturally, knows me through and through. Turns out she’s actually been promoted from field agent to Agency management- and Lyra still knows nothing about any of the Agency business. So of course, Bonbon has been building that hydroelectric dam I mentioned earlier, and she positively jumped at the chance when Twilight suggested that I do the enchantment work instead of her.

And now I’m working with Twilight on the worldgate array. We’re not done yet, but Bonbon’s dam construction team- composed of almost three thousand ponies that I don’t think Twilight realized even existed until yesterday- has been reassigned to building the worldgate array.

Perhaps the strangest thing about it is that the instructions and original blueprints came from Celestia, yet Celestia says she doesn’t have a clue what it is?

Author's Note

Patreon, Discord.

Yes, Shooting Star is indeed a reader OC, who shares his name with his creator- both here on FimFiction and on my Discord server.