Waning Shine had finished packing his last bag as Barb came running into the room with a letter from the prince. "Shiny! Prince Full Moon has sent you a letter!" Barb said as Waning Shine grabbed the letter in his indigo magic.

Dear Waning Shine,

I am pleased to hear that you wish to learn about friendship, however I do not request you worry about it just yet as I have another request for you.

I need you to assist in the preperations of the Winter Moon Festival over in Ponyville, enclosed is a lost of ponies and their roles in making it happen, I would greatly like it if you assisted with it after you move in to your new home, a local library within Ponyville.

Signed,
Prince Full Moon

As Waning Shime put the letter down, he got the list of ponies, it wasn't many, just five. The five Waning Shine needed to meet once he was ready, since the Winter Moon Festival was tomorrow, were as followed: Prism Bolt (a weather pony), Flitterwary (an animal caretaker), Flamingo Cake (a party planner), Marvel (Fashion designer), and Apple Brandy (A food supplier).

Waning Shine looked at Barb with a somewhat happy smile, "Barb, is it bad to say that I think we'll need the hot air balloon to get to Ponyville?" He asked as Barb shook her head before running out to get Waning Shine's exclusive hot air balloon ready for travel.

Waning Shine and Barb had landed near a hallowed out tree called the Silver Oak Book Shop. They went inside and found out that, despite the name, it was treated more like a library. Waning Shine noticed a cloud nearby his home, he left Barb to handle the bags while he went to find a pegasus to move the cloud but the moment he looked around, he saw a sight he never thought he would. Magenta eyes staring into his own, a pastel light blue coat with a small necklace that had the charm of a cloud. The pony had a pastel rainbow for a mane and tail. "Hey, you good dude? You're just staring at me," the pegasus said as Waning shook his head.

"Yeah yeah, sorry. Ahem. My name's Waning Shine and I kinda just came from Canterlot, I was going to ask if you could move the move that's nearby," Waning Shine said, trying to shut off his brain's overdrive.

The pegasus seemed to be in thought, "Eh, why not. It's kinda my fault the cloud's there anyways. Name's Prism Bolt and I'm kinda the fastest pegasus you'll ever meet," he said. Prism Bolt had this cocky-not-cocky smirk on his face and Waning Shine watched as he went bolting to move the cloud away. Prism Bolt said bye as Waning Shine waved at him.

Waning Shine went back in as Barb finished putting the luggage in decent places. "Barb, what do you say we go ahead and get to checking off the list of ponies to meet, I know I already met Prism Bolt," Waning Shine said as he saw Barb get on his back.

Waning and Barb left their new home and started to look around for their first pony to meet, the fashion designer Marvel.

Upon entering the boutique, Waning Shine saw a stallion with a purple-ish mane and a light light red coat. His eyes were a nice blue, but Waning Shine wasn't interested. Same couldn't be said about Barb who was literally swooning at the sight of him. "Oh, hello there handsome, do you need any outfitting or is owning just that... plain bowtie?" He asked.

"I'm good, you must be Marvel, I'm Waning Shine," Waning replied as Marvel nodded.

"Oh please, Waning, it is a pleasure to meet you. Indeed, I am Marvel, now who's the little dragon on your back?" Marvel asked as Barb visibly blushed from being acknowledged by the fashion focused stallion.

"Her name's Barb, hatched her myself, actually," Waning said as Marvel looked at Waning's pure white bowtie.

"You know, Waning? I'll be right back," Marvel said before trotting off.

Waning looked at Barb, "Okay, could you have been at least slightly better at hiding your attraction towards Marvel? We've known him for less than a hour and you're crushing on him," he said as Barb looked down in slight shame.

Marvel returned after a brief moment holding a white bowtie with some black stars on the sides, "I saw your bowtie and decided to make a more distinst one for you. Take it, I'm not keeping it nor will I pay you for it," Marvel said as he saw Waning about to get some bits out.

"Oh... uh... thanks, Marvel. You didn't have to though," Waning refuted but Marvel was having none of it.

"Think nothing of it, handsome, just doing my personal duty," Marvel said as Waning and Barb said goodbye and left.

Waning Shine and Barb decided to check out Apple Brandy and so the pair of siblings were looking at the apple trees, moon-bloom apple trees to be specific, ready to go into it and find the apple farmer.

Waning and Barb soon encounter a young colt with a green ribbon around his hoof and his mane was actually neat looking. "Hey, do you think you could tell me where Apple Brandy is? I'm asking because I want to meet him," Waning asked as the colt seemed to have a smile on his face.

"Everypony! Somepony's come ta see mah bro, how 'bout we give 'em the Apple family treatment?!" The colt said as a looooong line of his family members come up and surrounded the duo.

It takes the duo half an hour to stop being surrounded. A stallion with a tan coat and a short blonde mane and tail came up to Waning Shine and Barb, "Sorry 'bout that, Apple Seed likes havin' the entire family surround and meet new faces instead of actually just givin' 'em time ta breathe," he said once Waning Shine and Barb got the chance to breathe.

"It's fine, just overwhelmed me, I'm Waning Shine," the now calmed unicorn spoke as he corrected his bowtie.

Barb got onto Waning's head, "And I'm Barb!" She said with a smile on her face.

The stallion smiled as he retucked his bandana, "Mighty fine ta meet ya both, name's Apple Brandy," he said with a smile.

Waning Shine and Barb were leaving the farm now after having a simple chat with Apple Brandy and were now on their way home, eager to meet the other two tomorrow evening... that was the plan but the moment the duo entered their home, they had their senses assulted by a stallion with a bright mane coat and a very bubbly, yellow mane having apparently thrown a party for them, "HI THERE! I saw you two trotting through town and realized, 'oh crap, I've never seen these two in town before so that means I haven't thrown a welcome to Ponyville party so I immediately knew that I had to plan a party for you but then realized that I don't know you so I had realized that this party couldn't be too crazy but still crazy and-" he got stopped by a very desaturated yellow hoof.

"E-excuse my friend, h-he's just a very excitable pony. I-I'm F-Flitterwary," the desaturated pony said while looking entirely unremarkable, except the tail which looked rather unique, "And the excitable pony is Flamingo Cake, we've been friends since foalhood... d-despite how unlikely it seems," he added.

Waning Shine looked at the two ponies... and smiled. "Hey, it's fine, already been overwhelmed once today, what's one more?" Waning said jokingly, "Anyways, I'm Waning Shine and was more surprised by the fact that Cake threw a party just to welcome me to Ponyville. Pretty welcome surprise, I'll tell you that much," he added as the whole party started getting into a full gear. To Waning's surprise, everypony he'd met in Ponyville till now was at the party... even Prism Bolt, he thought to himself.

Maybe friendship won't be as bad as Waning once thought.

The next night, the Winter Moon Festival.

Waning Shine was talking with Prism Bolt about mostly night stuff while the others were conversing about the festival and how Full Moon himself was going to arrive. "I wonder what's taking so long for Prince Full Moon to get here? He never goes against the plans made," Waning Shine said, getting concerned considering how late it's getting compared to the usual plans for the festival.

"And he'll never get here today," a voice said, a voice that was unnerving. The curtains moved away to reveal, not the moon, BUT THE SUN! Everypony looking towards it started shielding their eyes. "So nothing has changed, it's been a thousand years and you ponies STILL hide your eyes away from my glorious sun! No matter, in a matter of time, my sun will be all you have to see HAHAHAHAHAHA!" An alicorn came through the open window, and who it was... shocked everypony.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author's Note

Daybreaker: Now prepare for DAYBREAK!

Waning Shine: Haha no, friendship beam attack.