Author's Note

Extra Halloween Chapter!
This may be important later :)

I'm sorry if the writing quality isn’t quite up to the other chapters—I just wanted to post a Halloween extra since it's been almost 15 days since the last chapter.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

2.5: Make a wish

Canterlot wasn’t the only city celebrating on Princess Twilight’s coronation day. Cloudsdale, Appleloosa, Las Pegasus, and many other towns held their own celebrations. One of these cities was Manehattan, considered the largest and most populous city in the entire kingdom.

The city was bustling as usual, but this time with a festive air. The city council organized a massive parade in honor of the new princess on Manehattan’s main avenue, and all workers were given the day off to enjoy the event with their families.

Among the gathered crowd were two young unicorn colts, running down the sidewalk, clearly in a hurry to get somewhere. In their rush, one of them accidentally bumped into a city police mare officer. "Hey! Be careful! Don’t run without looking where you’re going—you could cause an accident," the officer reprimanded the pair, sounding a little annoyed.

The two colts looked embarrassed and couldn’t find the words to respond—after all, children rarely know how to react to figures of authority. "I promise it won’t happen again, Officer," said a more mature voice. It was the older brother of one of the colts, a young adult unicorn. "I should be keeping an eye on them, but you know how it is. These two are a bit too energetic."

"(Sigh) All right, just keep an eye on them," she said, turning away. “Have a nice day,” the older brother replied. Once the officer had left, his friendly face immediately turned into a bitter scowl. "I told you to stay close to me! What were you thinking? Why’d you take off like that!?" He sounded even angrier than the officer.

“We were just playing. It was an accident,” the younger brother mumbled, a bit sad about getting scolded twice in such a short time. "I’m not going to argue with you here. Let’s just get back to where we were and watch the rest of the parade," he said, and the trio began walking again.

...

“we were so close,” the younger brother’s friend muttered quietly.

“Yeah, I know, but we can’t do anything now,” the younger brother replied.

The older brother could tell the two were planning something. It had been clear from the moment they ran off a few minutes earlier, and the fact that his younger brother had lied about what they were doing only made it more suspicious.

His brother was usually impulsive and often did things on a whim, like running off without thinking. But normally his friend, who was much more collected and calm, would have been around to keep him under control. The fact that he’d joined in this time confirmed it wasn’t just a “game.”

The older brother glanced at the pair walking behind him and could see they were whispering something to each other, but he couldn’t make out any words because of the city noise. "All right, enough games. What were you two really up to? And don’t bother saying you were just playing. I know that’s a lie." The pair exchanged glances before the younger brother’s friend decided to tell the truth.

"Sorry, it’s just... we wanted to see the Wishing Alley."

“Wishing Alley?” The older brother raised an eyebrow, confused.

"You haven’t heard the rumors?" The younger brother asked. "People at school say there’s a ghost pony who grants wishes in one of the alleys near the main avenue."

The older brother stayed silent, barely believing the absurdity of what he’d just heard. "You… you can’t be serious. That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life."

“It’s true! They told me there was a pegasus who lived in that alley, and he spent days and nights crying. Then, one night, he wished he could disappear… and a ghost pony with glowing eyes appeared out of nowhere and took him away. Since then, no one’s seen him again. Some of my friends went there, but no one figured out how to summon the ghost except that pegasus. But I’m going to figure it out... I know I will,” the younger brother said enthusiastically, while the older brother stared at him, speechless, a chill running down his spine. Now, he could only think of one thing:

'Maybe I should go back and talk to that officer.'