Ep.1: Pilot

Ep. 1: Pilot

The air was humid, and the ground was hot under her hooves but Twilight didn’t notice, her gaze like everyone else’s was fixed on the sky. Nothing was happening yet but just two hours ago spike had coughed up a letter from princess Celestia, asking that Twilight wait for the guest she was expecting to arrive in Ponyville that very day. It wasn’t the fact that the princess had asked her to do this that surprised Twilight and had her so anxious to greet the new arrival -- She had done this a few times in the past, it usually ended up being about politics. No. What had twilight so up in arms was the pedigree of this particular guest. The individual that princess Celestia had asked Twilight to greet was nothing short of a full blown alicorn! The letters made no mention of who this alicorn was or where she was from, but Twilight was sure that she was important, possibly even another princess. Naturally Twilight told everypony in town about the event and before long there was a sizeable crowd in the centre of town with each spectator avidly gawking skyward waiting for a royal chariot to descend into Ponyville.
“Uh, Twi? You sure you should be waitin’ out in this heat, I mean do you even know when this here alicorn is gonna show?”
Twilight took a few moments to formulate an answer as she broke out of her trance, finally she blurted out.
“Well, no – I mean yes! Well actually I don’t, but the princess said she would be here today and there are only eleven hours left in the day! So I don’t see any harm in waiting a little longer”,
Applejack just gave her a blank stare that said ‘you are unbelievable’, turned around and said
“Alright, but I’m headed down to sugarcube corner to meet the girls, come find us there when you’re done roasting your brain”,
And with that she walked away, leaving twilight in the crowd to wait for the as of yet, illusive royal guest.

It wasn’t long before ponies started to clear the area, the heat and un-eventfulness of the day leaving them defeated. There was hardly a crowd left when Twilight was disturbed by a voice coming from behind her.
“Excuse me, what is everypony doing staring at the sky? Is something happening?”
Twilight looked over her shoulder; the voice belonged to a colt. A unicorn with a dark, mint-green pelt, and a mane that wasn’t quite black. She reset gaze on the sky and sighed,
“I’m waiting, to greet a royal guest of princess Celestia. She’s an ali --“
Twilight stopped her sentence short. Something was off about her conversational partner. She turned around completely this time, scrutinizing the unicorn in front of her. He was tall but not exceptionally so and his golden eyes were betraying his obvious confusion. It wasn’t until she looked at his side that Twilight discovered what had thrown her off. There they were! Wings! Twilight swung her gaze back to the unicorn’s head, checking that she hadn’t imagined his horn, but it was still there, and so was his confused expression. Twilight couldn’t find her voice, she’d never seen a colt alicorn before, in fact she had always assumed that the occurrence of an alicorn was exclusive to mares. Still unable to form words Twilight stood in front of the alicorn mouth agape.

Finally the alicorn broke the silence.
“Oooookay, guess I’ll just go then… bye”,
“Wait!”
Twilight shouted as the alicorn began to walk away.
“My name is Twilight Sparkle. Are you the alicorn that princess Celestia has invited to Canterlot?”
The alicorn just looked more confused now,
“I never got any sort of invitation, and I don’t know anypony named Celestia… But if you’re offering I could really use a tour around town, I just hopped off the train from Mareizona this afternoon you see and to be frank, I’m kinda lost… by the way where exactly am I?”
Twilight was relived to finally hear a question she could answer,
“This is Ponyville, last stop before Canterlot and as for that tour…”
Twilight looked back at the now vacant town court, where a royal chariot was supposed to be, then out towards the setting sun and sighed audibly. Coming to the conclusion that, ‘royal or not, the pony in front of her was an alicorn and he did arrive today so…’
“Sure. I don’t think the pony I was expecting is going to show anytime soon”,
The alicorn grinned,
“Great! My name is Doom n’ Gloom by the way, and thanks!”
Twilight decided not to ponder on the weird name and began to walk,
“It’s starting to get dark though, and pretty much everypony has closed up for the evening, so I’ll have give you the tour tomorrow”,
“Oh… okay”,
Twilight caught on almost immediately,
“You don’t have a place to stay, do you?”
“Well no, not really. Do you know if there’s an inn around town?”
Twilight opened her mouth, glad to answer Doom’s questions for a second time but she stopped herself short. Looking at Doom she noticed he didn’t have a saddle bag, a carry on, or even a hoofbag. It looked as if he didn’t have a bit to his name, it wouldn’t be right to lead him to shelter if he couldn’t even afford it. Twilight ran through her options, there was only one that held water though. Smiling, Twilight said,
“Never mind the inn, I have a bedroll at the library you can use”
Doom seemed taken aback and his face started to turn bright a red,
“Oh, well I don’t want to be any trouble, I-I’m sure I can find someplace tha-- “,
“I insist”,
Twilight interrupted
“Now, come on. I don’t know about you but I’m beat”

Twilight opened the door to the library and ushered Doom inside, following him in she didn’t hear spike coming down the stairs to greet her, she assumed he must already be asleep. Remembering her guest Twilight made her way to the closet and dug out an old dusty bedroll. Looking at the thing she was almost embarrassed by its condition but Doom didn’t seem to notice, in fact it seemed like he was in a sort of trance. Doom’s eyes fluttered between the library shelves and the massive stacks of books lining most of the floor. With a look of awe he turned to Twilight and asked,
“You live here?”
Twilight gave a shy smile, replying,
“Sorry. I would have cleaned up if I knew I would be having company over”
“No, I mean, you live here, with all of these books? That’s amazing! You must be incredibly talented, what with all of these spell books lying around!”
“Well I don’t like to brag, but I do know a spell or two”
Doom was beaming in excitement now,
“Would you mind telling me how my levitation is? I’ve been working on my finesse but I hardly ever get a chance to try it”,
“I don’t see why not”,
Twilight said, deciding to entertain Doom.
“Great! Well, here goes nothing”,
Doom closed his eyes, inhaled softly and suddenly every book in the library rose into the air. The books began to drift in every which direction and slowly, they began to find their way onto the shelves. Soon enough the entire library was spotless, even the dust was absent, collected into a small gray ball that was progressively turning into glass. The only thing left on the floor was a small stack of books in a corner, five in all. Doom took the bedroll away from Twilight’s feet and laid it out beside the pile, then he turned to her and asked,
“You don’t mind do you? I promise I’ll put them back”,
Twilight didn’t say anything, She hadn’t expected anything more than a twisted cherry stem, then she remembered how powerful alicorn magic had to be if princess Celestia used it to raise the sun every day. An organized library was probably the least of what Doom could do. Twilight looked at Doom, wondering at what else he was capable of when suddenly she notice he was still waiting on an answer,
“Your levitation is perfect… and you can read as much as you like”,
Twilight said as she turned to walk up the stairs. It was nearly impossible for her to walk away without blurting out a hundred questions at once, as well as the one that was really nagging at her; where was Doom from? Not having the energy to ponder on it, Twilight lay down in her bed and led sleep take her.

Downstairs, Doom sat on the bedroll and opened the first book in his pile --Creatures of Equestria-- to chapter seven, titled; Changelings.

End Ep. 1

Author's Note

So yeah, this is just the pilot episode so it's expectedtly short, future entries will be <3,000 words (this one is around 1,500), and just a warning, the beginning of the series is gonna be long and kinda corny. Bear with me on it okay, cause thins get a little more exciting as the story progresses. (i'm talking action exciting, not heated romance exciting so keep your pants on). any way that's it from me so, toodles for now, and enjoy the fic!

P.S.- Please message me if you do happen to come across any typos a might have missed, thanks!