Welcome to Ponyville

Twilight only managed to sleep for a couple of hours that night, her mind full of worry.  Before the sun had risen, Spike had cracked her door and discovered that she was awake.

“I thought you might want to see Celestia’s reply as soon as possible.” he muttered.

Twilight quickly took the letter and unrolled it, still lying on her bed.  Spike quickly excused himself, his stomach growling, but Twilight didn’t notice.  The moment she had settled, she had begun to read intently.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I am very grateful for your letter.  Yesterday I sensed some painfully strong magic being released uncontrollably, and I believe that this colt might have something to do with it.  Anypony near the area would likely not survive.  I have already attempted to investigate this, but when I received your letter, I redirected the search east of Ponyville as you suggested.

Such a pony is every bit as dangerous as you believed, yet I do not wish you to discontinue his instruction.  As unstoppable as he will be should he attempt anything ill-disciplined, it is very essential that you deal with him in words of persuasion and reason.  He should not be isolated in fear, yet he must remain under careful watch at all times.  I suggest that you take him with you into the town and let him get to know some of his neighbors, but be sure that he is ready for it.

This may seem to you to be a daunting task, and you would be right.  However, even with the mistakes you made along the way, you have never let me down, and I know you will exceed expectations yet again.  I cannot think of anypony better suited to this than yourself.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

Twilight wished that the Princess had given her more direct instructions, but she never received letters like that unless it was about an immediate crisis.  Groaning, she pulled herself out of her bed and went to prepare breakfast.

As she was finishing up, she remembered something important.  “I’ve gone and forgot about Dayspring, and after all those hours of weary worry!”

She discovered that he was wide awake, currently occupied with the telescope.  Since he didn’t see her come in, Twilight said “Good morning Dayspring.”

He turned around, his eyes full of excitement.  “Good morning Miss Twilight!”

“Please, Dayspring, you don’t have to call me ‘Miss’.  You may simply call me Twilight.”  She considered him for a moment.  “Didn’t you get any sleep last night?”

“Well, actually I think I did fall asleep right after you left.”  Dayspring replied reluctantly.  “But my parents always made me get up this early so I could help them out around the farm before it gets hot.”  He turned back to the telescope.  “This machine here is great!” he exclaimed, his tone taking a dramatic change.  “When I look inside, it is like I am much closer at what I am looking at!  I spent a lot of time looking at the moon!  Well,” he began again, his expression dampened, “until it disappeared behind the trees.”

Twilight nodded her head a little.  “It’s called a telescope, Dayspring.”

His face brightened.  “Oooh, is that like that spell you showed me, telekenisis?  Does it use magic?”

Twilight considered.  “I suppose the words partially mean the same thing.  ‘Tele’ means ‘to move’.  Telekinesis means to move with magic, but telescope would mean to move your vision.”

“That is exactly what it does!  But...”  Suddenly the colt flipped about and pushed his face into his bedsheets.

Before twilight could react, he said, “When I get this close to stuff that is really close, it doesn’t help me see it much better.”  He extracted his face.  “And the telescope doesn’t help much either.”

Twilight was lightly shaking her head.  Clearly, the colt had a curiosity rivaling her own.  “Well, I’m sorry to take you away from your fun, but I wanted to tell you that we have a few small things to do today in town.  Are you coming to breakfast?”

He frowned at her.  “Do we have to right now?”

“Oh come now, you need to keep your energy up.”  She motioned with her hoof and said, “Come on, I made something special just for you.”

Dayspring didn’t argue any further.  She led him into the kitchen.  With further encouragement, he uncertainly put some of the fruit salad into his mouth.  The dish consisted of many things that he had never seen on the farm.  Quickly deciding that he liked it, he swallowed.

Dayspring wolfed down the rest of his fruit salad.  As soon as he had finished, he asked Twilight, “Are we going to get to see the rest of Ponyville now?”

She had not finished her own breakfast yet.  After swallowing, she said, “Not until you put that plate in the sink.”  Seeing his pouting face, she quickly added, “If you leave it out it will attract really gross, flying bugs.”

Dayspring didn’t know exactly what she was talking about, but he did as he was told.  However, he was secretly hoping to find one of these bugs later.

Twilight wasted no time in finishing her plate too.  Just as she was about to put it in the sink alongside the one Dayspring had used, Spike walked in.

“Oh no,” she thought, “I completely forgot to introduce them!  Oh, this is so embarrassing.  But there just hasn’t been a good moment to!”

Spike broke the silence.  “Is this your new assistant Twi?”

Dayspring looked at Twilight, who quickly said, “He isn’t my assistant yet, and doesn’t have to be if he doesn’t want to!  Oh, umm, Dayspring, this is Spike.  He stays here with me too.  And Spike, this is... Dayspring.”

“Sorry,” began Dayspring, “but if you came here for a bite to eat, I think it’s all gone.”

Twilight suddenly threw Spike a suspicious look.  She looked toward the freezer, and then back at him.  He looked away and took a step to the side.

“Spike,” Twilight said in a warning voice, “I am taking Dayspring with to show around Ponyville.  I suspect I will be gone for most of the day.  I want you to go down to Rarity’s boutique and make yourself useful, and if you start to complain of a stomach ache, I don’t want to hear it.

Spike didn’t look like he was ready to complain.  Determined to hide his feelings, he kept his face blank, but congratulated himself in his head.  Saluting with a hand, he said, “I’ll get going right away!”

A moment after Spike had dashed out, Twilight said to Dayspring, “And we ought to get going too.  But Dayspring,” she said as she put on her best serious face, “Promise me that you won’t use any magic without asking for my permission.”

Dayspring’s head tilted to a side.  “Oh, why not?”

“I’m sorry Dayspring, but you don’t know your own strength!  Without further training, you might cause an accident and hurt somepony!”

“Alright then, I promise.”

A couple hours passed of Twilight touring Dayspring around Ponyville.  She had taken him to the train station and to the Apple farm and several places in between.  Applejack had given Dayspring a small basket of apples as a gift.  At Dayspring’s insistence, Twilight had given him permission to carry the basket.

On the way back through the heart of Ponyville, Twilight remembered that Sugar Cube Corner was just a bit further ahead.  “I bet Dayspring would like a special treat,” thought Twilight.   “He could use one to ease up.”

As soon as they had set foot in the shop, a pink blur nearly knocked Twilight over.

“Oh Twiiiiiiiiiilight, my Pinky sense is-“  Pinky Pie stopped as took notice of Dayspring, who was recovering from recoil.

“Oh boy oh boy oh boy, who’s this?  Is this your new friend Twi?”  Pinkie actually did a full spin on the spot.

“Yes Pinky, this is-“  Twilight cut herself short when she realized that Pinky was still jumping up and down in excitement and might not be listening.

“Pinky!”

Pinky stopped jumping and looked at her again.  “This is Dayspring.  He has just arrived in Ponyville, so I was thinking-“

“Oh oh oh!” exclaimed Pinky.  “We totally need to have a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party and it will be the most awesomest party ever!  We can have it right behind your place!”

“Pinky, I was just-“

“You’ll have to tell me later Twilight!  I just remembered I need to go and deliver a whole bunch of invitations to everypony in Ponyville!”

Another blur later and Pinkie was gone, one of the door slowly easing its way back to the closed position.  Twilight looked over to Dayspring to find his mouth agape.

“Well Dayspring, I suppose we have a party to attend later.”

As soon as Twilight and Dayspring had returned to the library, they saw that Pinkie Pie had already started preparations in the back.

Pinky “Twilight!  You’re here!  I need you to come here and tell me if you like where I’ve put the snackies!”

“Alright, I’ll be there in a second!” shouted Twilight back to her.  She turned to address Dayspring.  “Why don’t you go inside and put those apples on the dining table, and then you can play with your telescope for a while.”

“Okay!” he replied excitedly.  He ran to the front door and was inside in a flash.

It seemed Pinkie had impeccable timing.  As soon as Twilight had approved everything, guests began flowing in.

“Hang on a minute Pinkie,” said a startled Twilight.  “When is this party supposed to start?”

“Oh, silly me!  I went to deliver invitations and the only pony I missed was you!  I’m sorry that I don’t have one for you right now.  Anyway, I’ve got this awesome firework thing that when it goes boom, the sparklies that come out are shaped like ‘Welcome to Ponyville!’, so it starts right before sundown.”

“I should have expected as much,” said Twilight aloud to Pinkie.  “I had better go fetch Dayspring then.”

It took some time to tear Dayspring away from the telescope again.  When they stepped through the front door, their faces froze at the sight waiting just outside.

“Welcome to Ponyville!”  A wave of confetti flew into the air.  There was a crowd of ponies right behind the door.  Dayspring had jumped, and quickly tried to conceal himself behind one of Twilight’s legs.

Twilight could barely believe how quickly Pinky’s parties attracted guests, with everypony more or less showing up on the minute.  “Come on Dayspring,”  Twilight said, “A surprise is all a part of the fun.  Let’s go see what everypony has in store for us.”

Dayspring tried participating in some of the games, but when it was his turn, all of the ponies stopped to watch and encourage him, making him feel uncomfortable.  He was happy when Pinkie announced that it was time for a special surprise and everypony stopped to watch.

He didn’t understand what Pinkie was doing.  She was on the ground fiddling with something, but he couldn’t see what.  Suddenly a ball of light shot into the air and his eyes followed it instinctively.  The ball seemed to explode, but it was left shapes in the sky for a few seconds.

Everypony around him was cheering.  He saw Twilight and ran up to her and brushed against one of her front legs.

She looked down at him with a reassuring smile.  “I know you can’t read yet, but Pinkie was welcoming you to Ponyville again.  She likes to put on a show.”

When the cheering stopped, the rest of the festivities resumed.  Dayspring didn’t feel like playing more games, so he decided to go sample from the snack bar.  “Uh oh,” he thought upon reaching the table, which was higher than he was.  “I can’t get anything down without using magic.”

He stood still for a couple of minutes.  “Oh, Twilight won’t mind if it’s just a little, and I can be careful.”  Happy with this conclusion, Dayspring levitated down one of the treats.  After he had gobbled it down, he ears detected movement coming from under the table.

He poked his head through the tablecloth that draped over the edge of the table to discover three fillies, about his own size.  They quickly scuttled out from under the table through the other side.  He followed them and found that they had stopped and were looking at him.

“What were you doing down there?”  He asked them, his voice filled with curiosity.

“Nothing!”  shouted one of them.  “Nothing at all, we weren’t being bad or anything...”  She paused.  “Hey, you’re the colt aren’t you?  I’m Sweetie Belle, this here is Scootaloo, and that’s Apple Bloom!”

Dayspring felt suspicion toward the three, but he said, “My name is Dayspring.”

“I heard that you’re Twilight’s new helper,” said Scootaloo.  “That must be all kinds of fun.  I bet you can do all kinds of amazing magic-“

“Ah don’t think he can,” interrupted Apple Bloom.  “Otherwise he’d have a cutie mark for awesome magic power!”

Dayspring was taken aback.  Why were these fillies saying that he couldn’t do what he knew he could?”

“I can do awesome magic,” he said in a low voice.

“Oh, neat!” said Sweetie Belle.  “I’ve tried over and over, but I can’t even lift a feather.”  She turned to her companions as she said, “But it’s more fun trying to get our cutie marks together!”

Sweetie looked back at Dayspring.  “But maybe you can do it!  I bet if you do some amazing spell, you’ll get a cutie mark that tells everyone how amazing you are!”

A look of determination crept into Dayspring’s face.  His turned his head to the supreme object of his fascination while playing with the telescope.  He reached out with his magic and seized it.

“If I can bring the moon just a little closer, it will be easier to see it with the telescope.  I’ll have to be careful, I can’t just apply all of the force in one spot, I’ll have to-“

Suddenly there was a brilliant flash.  “STOP!”

Princess Luna herself had teleported on scene, her posture and expression utterly terrifying.  A few ponies screamed, and most of them were hunched over.  Otherwise, there was silence.

“Why?”

Luna’s eyes quickly found Dayspring, who was standing all by himself.  It was as though he had slapped her in the face.  Luna conducted a dispel at him, but discovered that she could not break the colt’s hold on her moon.  In a panic, she tried forcing him to sleep, but again, the magic was inexplicably having no effect.

In a flash, she had her face almost pressed up against his.  From Dayspring’s perspective, she was gigantic, and clearly very angry.  His face changed to morbid fear.

“Thou shalt listen to me, thou must put a stop to this upon the instant!”  Luna’s voice was on the brink of hostility.  “My moon is a finely tuned relay for dream magic, without which, nopony would be safe in the night!”

Some confusion wormed its way onto Dayspring’s face, but he had released his grip on the moon and was now waiting in fear for whatever happened next.

Luna lost some of her panic, relieved that the colt had not actually shifted the moon off course, but said in a menacing whisper, “I knoweth all about thou.  My sister has told me all about thou.  There is a reason why none such as thou hast arisen in Equestia.  Thou hast no place in this world.  Thou art an abomination that-“

Luna was cut off by a popping sound and discovered that she was looking at bare ground.  She quickly looked all around, but all she saw were other ponies watching her in horror.

Dayspring found himself in complete darkness.  He was scared to move, but he realized that he was completely alone.

“Where am I?” he cried aloud.  He received no answer.

He had been hoping to hear a pony’s voice say something in response, anything at all, but after listening and hearing nothing, he was on the verge of tears.

He noted that his horn was starting to get out of control again, but he conceded that there was nopony else around to hurt.

He screamed and screamed, throwing a temper tantrum.  He could feel raw magic fly around him, but he didn’t care.

But when he opened his eyes, he was greeted with one of the last things he might have expected.

He was no longer standing in void.  His feet were planted on firm ground, and the land was uneven, stretching out as far as he could see.  But everything was dark and grey, and there was no sign of sun, moon, or stars.

Dayspring was still afraid to move.  He wanted to go back to the library, but he didn’t know how.

Eventually, curiosity overcame fear and he took in more of his surroundings.  There was a single, gigantic building with towers all over it in the distance.  It seemed to loom over him and generally feel uninviting, much like the land itself.  All around it there were very many smaller buildings, but it looked like many of them were falling apart.

Upon close inspection of a nearby lone tree, he discovered that it felt and looked like a rock.  Moving to the top of a hill, he was able to see seemingly forever in all directions, except in one direction where there were large mountains.  The rest of the land was completely empty of anything significant.

Dayspring thought about his next move.  He didn’t want to stay where he was, and there was nothing for him in the wasteland.  Maybe there was somepony in the big building that could help him, even if it did look really scary.

Dayspring only made it about halfway.  Without warning, the magical sensation returned, and he vanished again with a pop that nopony was around to hear.

Dayspring had returned to the library, and as it happened, Twilight was looking in his direction as he appeared.

“Dayspring!”  She cried, embracing him.  She had tears in her eyes.  She let go of him and cried in a half shout, “I was so worried about you!  You’ve managed to get on Princess Luna’s bad side and then vanished for about half an hour!  I’ve had my friends out looking for you!  Luna left to shout it out with Celestia!  I only hope she can calm her down.  Luna was enraged when you suddenly teleported away!  Where on Equestria did you learn that?

After a moment Dayspring realized that Twilight was expecting him to say something.

“Oh!  Um, I don’t actually know.  I don’t think I could do it again.  I didn’t even know where I was when it was over.”

Twilight, still upset, asked, “Where have you been?”

Dayspring shifted uncomfortably.  “Well, I told you, I don’t know.  It was somewhere dark and scary.  There was almost nothing as far as I could see, and there was no sun.”

Twilight gave him a confused look.  “But,” Dayspring suddenly remembered, “There was one really big building.  There were other buildings around the big one, but I think they were falling apart.”

“Can you go there again?” said Twilight urgently.

“I don’t know how I got there,” said Dayspring.  “I wasn’t doing anything!”

“Dayspring, I think we need to find a way to go back, and I want to go with you.  A pony can’t teleport to any place they don’t know the location of, and it certainly wasn’t in Equestria.  For all we know this might be where your mother was from or something.  I think we might find somepony or something there that can help us understand what to do with you.”

“I don’t understand,” said Dayspring, his face reflecting his words.

Twilight thought to herself before speaking.  “I shouldn’t try to teach him the spell after all that should I?  It might be worse than giving a monkey the key to the banana plantation!  Look what he almost did with a simple levitation spell!  But I’m sure I need to, and it will only be a matter of time anyway...”