The Alicorn: My Past In Ponyvilleby magicalmoonbeam1710ChaptersQueen SkylaPonyvilleRarityQueen SkylaHere I am, queen of all of Equestria, ruling over two lands with the one I love, and yet, I am not happy. Why am I not happy? In everything we achieve, there is an amount we have to lose. My price in losses was much higher than my winnings. It seems that some ponies are just destined to lose everything that means something to them. I am one of them. Whenever I had something or somepony who I loved or who loved me, they were brutally ripped away. It’s not that I am a jaded mare. I… I just…I’ve never have had a happy life. It was happy at some points, but very soon, I was punished in some way or another. My story has become a legend among all in Equestria and the Valley of the Changelings alike. Anyone who meets me asks the same thing; “Is it true? Did that really happen?” of course I would love to tell them that it is all myth, but that would be a lie. My life is something I have to live with. I would also love to say that none of it was my fault, but that would be a lie as well. Many things were not of my doing, but more were because of my choices, and so I can’t claim that either. Many know the story of my beginnings in Canterlot, but not many of my time in Ponyville, with the Changelings, or during the war. If you wish, I shall tell of the time from my arrival in Ponyville, to the time I was banished. You can decide after that if you wish to hear of the time after. Each word of this story is true. Though I wish it hadn’t been this way, it is. I didn’t choose my fate, it chose me. I was alone in the world, in a flying carriage driven by a Pegasus who had issues with Alicorns (so why was he even working for us). We were passing over the statue gardens and I looked down. I spotted Discord and Chaos, his son made after the reformation to keep him from losing his mind from boredom, sitting freely on a bench. After the reformation, they were both allowed to roam free. I know I would miss Chaos, he was the only sweet thing in my life at the time, and, I had a soft spot for him. I quickly made the decision to jump out of the chariot and land in the garden. Somehow I thought that my wings would open and just parachute me down or I would suddenly know how to fly, I was wrong. Once I jumped, I realized that it was much farther to the ground then I thought. My wings locked to my body and I started to fall at an alarming speed. I kicked my hooves in every which way and closed my eyes, bracing for impact. It never came. I was caught by Discord who put me down next to Chaos. He then flew away to do whatever he did now that he was reformed, leaving Chaos and I to be. He looked rather sad when he saw me and asked, “Are you really leaving?” I was tearing as I nodded and sorrowfully replied, “Yes, I’m sorry,” He hugged me tightly and started crying hard as he choked out, “Please don’t leave me!” I hugged him back, and was crying as well. The carriage guard had landed near and was eyeing me annoyingly. “Time to go your highness!” he said with faked reverence. Chaos could see through this façade and viciously shouted “Leave her alone!” The guard was shocked by this outburst and made no further comments. I took his paw in my hoof and looked in his teary eyes as I said, “Chaos, I have to go.” He looked down and then said, “Wait; there is something I want to give you!” He left and returned quickly holding in his hands a little gold locket which he gave to me saying, “Here, to remember me by.” He locked it around my little neck and then he said, “It contains a large amount of love.” The guard ushered me on to the chariot as I kept looking back at Chaos. Discord had returned and was now holding his son back as to keep him from going after me. The door of the coach shut as the Pegasus lifted it off into the air. Discord was in a visible struggle to hold Chaos back. Chaos shouted up to where I was, “Skyla!” I looked down and yelled back, “Don’t worry; I’ll come back as soon as I can! I won’t be gone forever!” The clouds blocked my view of him and I looked down at the locket he had given me. It was beautiful and very fitting of a princess. I would miss him very much, that, I knew already. Through the duration of the chariot ride, he was my only thought. He would be the thought that would keep me warm through a lonely night. And I guarantee, there would be many. PonyvilleAfter quite a few hours of lengthy travel, I spotted a change in the landscape. It was no longer train tracks and grass, but dark trees that spanned across many acres. For about twenty minutes, that was all I could see, until a little town caught my eye. We were heading in its direction and I prepared myself for landing. To my surprise, the guard flew around the town so as to avoid being seen, and landed in a clearing in the forest. It was a strange place, unlike anything I had ever seen, but then again, I had never left the castle grounds and so that made everything seem strange. There was a chill running through the woods, almost as if it wanted to chase everything out. This made me a bit jumpy and i was startled to realize that the guard was out of his flying harness and was now carrying a black cloak that he must have had tucked away. He extended it to me, “Here, put this on. Orders from your mother. You are not to take this off unless Twilight tells you. I will escort you to her.” I took the cloak from him and struggled to get it on. Once I had, he took off his magic uniform, thus reverting his features to normal. the invention that made all guards look the same certainly came in handy. We walked for about half a mile until suddenly, there were no more trees, only cute little houses. I smiled and walked with more pep than before, wanting to see more of this little town. After a while, I saw a humongous tree in my path, and a purple unicorn standing in front of it. I stopped, my body froze, my hooves would not move, I was scared of my own aunt. Of course I knew she was my aunt, but I had only seen her as a tiny little filly and so, did not remember her. Seeing this reaction, the guard rolled his eyes and used his wing to push me over to Twilight. He then turned, nodded to her, and flew away. As for me, I was cowering away, but Twilight ran up to me looked around suspiciously, and shoved me in the door, which scared me even more. She started inching closer to me and I was backing into a corner when she smiled and melodically said, “We are going to have so much fun! I am so happy to have you as my guest Skyla!” It was so genuine, I was surprised. I never had seen a pony that was genuine to me; it made me instantly feel comfortable. She told me that I could take off my black hooded cloak and as I struggled to get it off, she easily levitated me out of it. I saw Spike coming down the stairs and my fear returned for I had never seen a dragon before. Spike could tell he was causing me to worry and so walked up to me and said, “Don’t worry, I’m nice. My name is Spike, what’s yours?” He smiled at me and I came out of my awkward sitting position. I then replied, “I’m Skyla….. do you….. want… to… be….. my friend?” I asked hopefully, I was starting a new life; all I could do was ask. He nodded and I smiled, I had never had a friend before. I hoped this would be the start of making many new friends. Twilight started toward the stairs and called back for me to follow, so I did. “Here is where we sleep,” she said, once we were up the stairs. She pointed to a bed, a basket, and a little bed with newly carved bed posts that I supposed was mine. I walked over to the bed and laid down the cloak I had been carrying over my back. Twilight then brought in the small bag of things I had packed from Canterlot and laid them next to the cloak. “Thanks!” I said quietly. After looking back at the cloak, I asked to no one in particular, “So, I have to wear this cloak every time I go anywhere? How am I going to make any friends?” Twilight looked shocked to see she had forgotten to tell me. “Oh!” she promptly exclaimed “Well, actually, I will be taking you to meet my good friend Rarity. She will be giving you a makeover, actually, multiple makeovers.” I cocked my head in confusion and Twilight knew exactly what part it was that confused me and so started again. “When I say multiple makeovers, I mean that you are portraying 4 different fillies, and you need a look for each. One Pegasus, one unicorn, and two different earth fillies. We will use a different identity for each of your lessons. Just so you’re safe.” She nodded as to reassure herself of that fact. “Sorry to rush you like this. I just wanted to get you unpacked before we headed out. We’ll have plenty of time to talk once we get back.” “Ok, I guess,” I said in reply. “Are we going NOW?” I asked as she was floating on my cape and started shoving me out the door. She nodded, I tried to make it down the stairs without being pushed off, but going down was harder than going up, and so, ended up falling and landing at the bottom, on my face. Almost out the door, Twilight told me, “Oh, yes. You can read any of these books anytime.” We both stepped out the door. We walked for a few minutes, passing little carts, stores and earth ponies as I walked down the dirt roads, all things I had complained about without even seeing. I quickly found, they were not at all bad. My black hooded cloak must have caught the attention of many ponies for soon; they were all staring at me and whispering “Another Zecora?”. Twilight soon noticed this and so darted around an empty part of the road. My aunt then said to me, “ You’re drawing to much attention so I will perform an invisibility spell I pulled out just in case. Just hold still, and after I perform it, avoid crashing into anypony.” I watched silently as a magenta glow soon surrounded her horn and grew in size, bigger, bigger, bigger, until it shot out at me. I looked down as my hooves began to disappear, until, they were gone! Twilight then opened her eyes and was pleased to see her spell had worked. She motioned me to follow her again and, of course, I did. RaritySo after walking for quite a while without being seen, we made it to a round domed building where I was motioned into the door by Twilight. At the time, I found it very funny that Twilight couldn’t pinpoint exactly where I was and so was in actuality, motioning to the area. I walked in and so did she, the door shutting behind her made a loud noise which gained the attention of a white mare who was busily sewing. She looked up and stopped working. She jumped to her hooves in a very noble way and then said, “Twilight, darling, what can I do for you today?” Twilight walked closer to her friend and answered, “Remember that little favor you said you would be glad to do for me?” Rarity raised her hoof to her chin in thought, not able to recall what Twilight was specifically referring to. Twilight continued “I brought along someone I think you would love to meet, this is Skyla,” she said as she closed her eyes and pointed my way. As I was invisible, Rarity’s face of confusion was priceless as to why her friend was waving at the wall. She started to laugh it off and then asked politely, “Is this a joke?” Twilight was confused at why her friend was confused which was rather funny to me. It took a minute for Twilight to turn and look back, when she did; she realized that I was still invisible and that she looked like a complete loon. She then did the counter spell which turned me visible. This calmed Rarity to know her friend was not having ‘issues’ again. Twilight then started, “Rarity, this is Princess Skyla. Skyla, this is Rarity. Now that everypony knows each other; Rarity, I want you to make Skyla look like me. We’ll have time to get to know each other later.” Rarity nodded and told me to go into the next room. It looked much bigger than the outside so I was rather surprised. Once in the room Rarity spoke to me for the first time, “Oh my stars! It’s such a pleasure to meet you dear. It’s not every day that I get to give royalty a makeover! I shall make you look fabulous!” She sat me in a chair and spun me towards a mirror. Rarity levitated shampoo and body wash and begun scrubbing me everywhere with a brush. I was glad, after the long ride in, I needed a cleaning. Once my mane was shampooed, she brought out conditioner and perfected my mane in all its natural beauty. But then she moved on to the make-up. To make me a unicorn, she needed to cover up my wings. She grabbed a plaster like liquid and spread it over my legs and wings. Luckily, I was very thin and this did not affect my look too much. She showed me what I looked like and honestly, I was a mess. But Rarity was not done, she floated a purple dye down from a shelf and dyed my body majestic purple. While it was drying, she took a pair of contact lenses and made my eyes dark pink. Finally, she gave my mane and tail a makeover: pulled up, back, and purple with pink highlights. She told me to look in the mirror. My eyes hurt, my mane was dyed, my wings tied, but I looked very good. Twilight seemed to think so too. “Are you sure there’s no charge?” Twilight asked Rarity. “Absolutely, it’s free for my friend.” She replied. Twilight told me to wait outside while she talked to Rarity, but I happened to overhear what they said. “So how long does it stay on?” I heard my aunt ask. “As long as you don’t scrub it off, and just make sure she doesn’t get very angry, that will almost melt the plaster off!” They said their goodbyes and Twilight came out to me. She told me we were going for a little outing before returning to the library and I was excited to see what life would bring, even if it meant going to buy some cherries. We visited every store in Ponyville but one, Sugar Cube Corner. Twilight said that we couldn’t risk Pinkie Pie. I did not know who that was but by the time we had returned to the tree house, my name was Grapy Joy, I was a unicorn, and I was being baby-sat by Twilight Sparkle, who I referred to as Twily. That was my story, one of four I had to memorize and play along with. I hopped this would be enough to keep who I was hidden. Around my newly purple neck hung a little gold locket with a splash of pink on its side. As I returned to my new home that night, I remembered Chaos, and how I promised my hasty return. I was trying to rush things along, but I realized, I couldn’t rush anything anymore so I would just have to wait it out. As I slid into the bed by the stairs after a daisy salad dinner, my wings itched from the left over plaster. The remove makeup spell had missed a bit under my wings. That night, I had a very strange dream. I was walking in a forest, or more specifically, out of one. I had just found my way into a large clearing, grand old trees on all sides. At the center was a smooth white table, and at this table was an earth pony stallion. This Stallion was a very dark blue and speckled white, such that his coat looked like the night sky on a bright a starry night in the countryside. I saw that his eyes were almost Hearth’s Warming flame colored, shining, and looking at me. “Well this is rare; no one has ever come here by accident. Then it must not be an accident that you are here. My name is Starry Eyed, don’t worry, I’m friendly.” Starry was friendly, I just knew. I could tell he wanted to be helpful, but he looked worried about something. Those eyes of his seemed to see my heart and soul, and his eyes reflected a friend’s concern. “You have a right to be afraid Skyla, but don’t let fear make you do something you’ll regret. Fear allows for courage, but it can also lead to despair unchecked.” I knew he wanted to help me, but he wasn’t making any sense. “I cannot help it if I am afraid, Starry Eyed. The whole world seems like it’s out to get me.” Starry leaned back in his seat, “I was only making an observation. My talent is cultivation.” I responded without thinking, “Obviously, you’re an earth pony.” As soon as the words left my mouth I covered it with my hooves, I really hadn’t meant to say something so rude. “I so sorry, I only meant…” “It’s quite alright, I’m not even mad. But you didn’t let me finish. I’m a green mage; I draw out the potential power in others. My special talent is that I can see the potential in anything, and draw it out. Hence, cultivation.” I was glad he wasn’t offended, but didn’t understand him after that, “I beg your pardon?” Starry clapped his hooves together, “I’ll give you a demonstration. Far from my best work, but the most I can do on short notice.” From the moment he had clapped his hooves the locket Chaos gave me had shone like a star, and as he finished speaking the light went out. “What did you do? This is really important to me!” I screamed at him, afraid he’d damaged my most precious possession. “I know it is, that’s why I chose it. You’re not likely to lose THAT. I gave it a bit of my power, the ability to see the way things really are. Just tell it what you’d like to see, it’ll do the rest.” I didn’t know what to say, so I tested it to see if he was telling the truth, “Show me Castle Canterlot.” Suddenly I was in the Castle again. In reality it was a vision from the locket, but I didn’t figure that out until later. It was dark, and the palace was empty. But I felt someone come up behind me, and heard Shimmering Arms whisper in my ear, “Keep on running little princess, I will catch you. I promise, you won’t get the chance to come back and ruin my plans. I swear, you will not come home alive!” I felt what I can only guess was Starry pulling me out of that vision and pinching me awake. I woke from that nightmare to realize it was only a dream; I was in the library, safe and sound. The night was only half over, 4 more hours of potential nightmares. I was here, away from all that haunted me so far, but I couldn’t help but wonder; was that real?
Queen SkylaHere I am, queen of all of Equestria, ruling over two lands with the one I love, and yet, I am not happy. Why am I not happy? In everything we achieve, there is an amount we have to lose. My price in losses was much higher than my winnings. It seems that some ponies are just destined to lose everything that means something to them. I am one of them. Whenever I had something or somepony who I loved or who loved me, they were brutally ripped away. It’s not that I am a jaded mare. I… I just…I’ve never have had a happy life. It was happy at some points, but very soon, I was punished in some way or another. My story has become a legend among all in Equestria and the Valley of the Changelings alike. Anyone who meets me asks the same thing; “Is it true? Did that really happen?” of course I would love to tell them that it is all myth, but that would be a lie. My life is something I have to live with. I would also love to say that none of it was my fault, but that would be a lie as well. Many things were not of my doing, but more were because of my choices, and so I can’t claim that either. Many know the story of my beginnings in Canterlot, but not many of my time in Ponyville, with the Changelings, or during the war. If you wish, I shall tell of the time from my arrival in Ponyville, to the time I was banished. You can decide after that if you wish to hear of the time after. Each word of this story is true. Though I wish it hadn’t been this way, it is. I didn’t choose my fate, it chose me. I was alone in the world, in a flying carriage driven by a Pegasus who had issues with Alicorns (so why was he even working for us). We were passing over the statue gardens and I looked down. I spotted Discord and Chaos, his son made after the reformation to keep him from losing his mind from boredom, sitting freely on a bench. After the reformation, they were both allowed to roam free. I know I would miss Chaos, he was the only sweet thing in my life at the time, and, I had a soft spot for him. I quickly made the decision to jump out of the chariot and land in the garden. Somehow I thought that my wings would open and just parachute me down or I would suddenly know how to fly, I was wrong. Once I jumped, I realized that it was much farther to the ground then I thought. My wings locked to my body and I started to fall at an alarming speed. I kicked my hooves in every which way and closed my eyes, bracing for impact. It never came. I was caught by Discord who put me down next to Chaos. He then flew away to do whatever he did now that he was reformed, leaving Chaos and I to be. He looked rather sad when he saw me and asked, “Are you really leaving?” I was tearing as I nodded and sorrowfully replied, “Yes, I’m sorry,” He hugged me tightly and started crying hard as he choked out, “Please don’t leave me!” I hugged him back, and was crying as well. The carriage guard had landed near and was eyeing me annoyingly. “Time to go your highness!” he said with faked reverence. Chaos could see through this façade and viciously shouted “Leave her alone!” The guard was shocked by this outburst and made no further comments. I took his paw in my hoof and looked in his teary eyes as I said, “Chaos, I have to go.” He looked down and then said, “Wait; there is something I want to give you!” He left and returned quickly holding in his hands a little gold locket which he gave to me saying, “Here, to remember me by.” He locked it around my little neck and then he said, “It contains a large amount of love.” The guard ushered me on to the chariot as I kept looking back at Chaos. Discord had returned and was now holding his son back as to keep him from going after me. The door of the coach shut as the Pegasus lifted it off into the air. Discord was in a visible struggle to hold Chaos back. Chaos shouted up to where I was, “Skyla!” I looked down and yelled back, “Don’t worry; I’ll come back as soon as I can! I won’t be gone forever!” The clouds blocked my view of him and I looked down at the locket he had given me. It was beautiful and very fitting of a princess. I would miss him very much, that, I knew already. Through the duration of the chariot ride, he was my only thought. He would be the thought that would keep me warm through a lonely night. And I guarantee, there would be many.
PonyvilleAfter quite a few hours of lengthy travel, I spotted a change in the landscape. It was no longer train tracks and grass, but dark trees that spanned across many acres. For about twenty minutes, that was all I could see, until a little town caught my eye. We were heading in its direction and I prepared myself for landing. To my surprise, the guard flew around the town so as to avoid being seen, and landed in a clearing in the forest. It was a strange place, unlike anything I had ever seen, but then again, I had never left the castle grounds and so that made everything seem strange. There was a chill running through the woods, almost as if it wanted to chase everything out. This made me a bit jumpy and i was startled to realize that the guard was out of his flying harness and was now carrying a black cloak that he must have had tucked away. He extended it to me, “Here, put this on. Orders from your mother. You are not to take this off unless Twilight tells you. I will escort you to her.” I took the cloak from him and struggled to get it on. Once I had, he took off his magic uniform, thus reverting his features to normal. the invention that made all guards look the same certainly came in handy. We walked for about half a mile until suddenly, there were no more trees, only cute little houses. I smiled and walked with more pep than before, wanting to see more of this little town. After a while, I saw a humongous tree in my path, and a purple unicorn standing in front of it. I stopped, my body froze, my hooves would not move, I was scared of my own aunt. Of course I knew she was my aunt, but I had only seen her as a tiny little filly and so, did not remember her. Seeing this reaction, the guard rolled his eyes and used his wing to push me over to Twilight. He then turned, nodded to her, and flew away. As for me, I was cowering away, but Twilight ran up to me looked around suspiciously, and shoved me in the door, which scared me even more. She started inching closer to me and I was backing into a corner when she smiled and melodically said, “We are going to have so much fun! I am so happy to have you as my guest Skyla!” It was so genuine, I was surprised. I never had seen a pony that was genuine to me; it made me instantly feel comfortable. She told me that I could take off my black hooded cloak and as I struggled to get it off, she easily levitated me out of it. I saw Spike coming down the stairs and my fear returned for I had never seen a dragon before. Spike could tell he was causing me to worry and so walked up to me and said, “Don’t worry, I’m nice. My name is Spike, what’s yours?” He smiled at me and I came out of my awkward sitting position. I then replied, “I’m Skyla….. do you….. want… to… be….. my friend?” I asked hopefully, I was starting a new life; all I could do was ask. He nodded and I smiled, I had never had a friend before. I hoped this would be the start of making many new friends. Twilight started toward the stairs and called back for me to follow, so I did. “Here is where we sleep,” she said, once we were up the stairs. She pointed to a bed, a basket, and a little bed with newly carved bed posts that I supposed was mine. I walked over to the bed and laid down the cloak I had been carrying over my back. Twilight then brought in the small bag of things I had packed from Canterlot and laid them next to the cloak. “Thanks!” I said quietly. After looking back at the cloak, I asked to no one in particular, “So, I have to wear this cloak every time I go anywhere? How am I going to make any friends?” Twilight looked shocked to see she had forgotten to tell me. “Oh!” she promptly exclaimed “Well, actually, I will be taking you to meet my good friend Rarity. She will be giving you a makeover, actually, multiple makeovers.” I cocked my head in confusion and Twilight knew exactly what part it was that confused me and so started again. “When I say multiple makeovers, I mean that you are portraying 4 different fillies, and you need a look for each. One Pegasus, one unicorn, and two different earth fillies. We will use a different identity for each of your lessons. Just so you’re safe.” She nodded as to reassure herself of that fact. “Sorry to rush you like this. I just wanted to get you unpacked before we headed out. We’ll have plenty of time to talk once we get back.” “Ok, I guess,” I said in reply. “Are we going NOW?” I asked as she was floating on my cape and started shoving me out the door. She nodded, I tried to make it down the stairs without being pushed off, but going down was harder than going up, and so, ended up falling and landing at the bottom, on my face. Almost out the door, Twilight told me, “Oh, yes. You can read any of these books anytime.” We both stepped out the door. We walked for a few minutes, passing little carts, stores and earth ponies as I walked down the dirt roads, all things I had complained about without even seeing. I quickly found, they were not at all bad. My black hooded cloak must have caught the attention of many ponies for soon; they were all staring at me and whispering “Another Zecora?”. Twilight soon noticed this and so darted around an empty part of the road. My aunt then said to me, “ You’re drawing to much attention so I will perform an invisibility spell I pulled out just in case. Just hold still, and after I perform it, avoid crashing into anypony.” I watched silently as a magenta glow soon surrounded her horn and grew in size, bigger, bigger, bigger, until it shot out at me. I looked down as my hooves began to disappear, until, they were gone! Twilight then opened her eyes and was pleased to see her spell had worked. She motioned me to follow her again and, of course, I did.
RaritySo after walking for quite a while without being seen, we made it to a round domed building where I was motioned into the door by Twilight. At the time, I found it very funny that Twilight couldn’t pinpoint exactly where I was and so was in actuality, motioning to the area. I walked in and so did she, the door shutting behind her made a loud noise which gained the attention of a white mare who was busily sewing. She looked up and stopped working. She jumped to her hooves in a very noble way and then said, “Twilight, darling, what can I do for you today?” Twilight walked closer to her friend and answered, “Remember that little favor you said you would be glad to do for me?” Rarity raised her hoof to her chin in thought, not able to recall what Twilight was specifically referring to. Twilight continued “I brought along someone I think you would love to meet, this is Skyla,” she said as she closed her eyes and pointed my way. As I was invisible, Rarity’s face of confusion was priceless as to why her friend was waving at the wall. She started to laugh it off and then asked politely, “Is this a joke?” Twilight was confused at why her friend was confused which was rather funny to me. It took a minute for Twilight to turn and look back, when she did; she realized that I was still invisible and that she looked like a complete loon. She then did the counter spell which turned me visible. This calmed Rarity to know her friend was not having ‘issues’ again. Twilight then started, “Rarity, this is Princess Skyla. Skyla, this is Rarity. Now that everypony knows each other; Rarity, I want you to make Skyla look like me. We’ll have time to get to know each other later.” Rarity nodded and told me to go into the next room. It looked much bigger than the outside so I was rather surprised. Once in the room Rarity spoke to me for the first time, “Oh my stars! It’s such a pleasure to meet you dear. It’s not every day that I get to give royalty a makeover! I shall make you look fabulous!” She sat me in a chair and spun me towards a mirror. Rarity levitated shampoo and body wash and begun scrubbing me everywhere with a brush. I was glad, after the long ride in, I needed a cleaning. Once my mane was shampooed, she brought out conditioner and perfected my mane in all its natural beauty. But then she moved on to the make-up. To make me a unicorn, she needed to cover up my wings. She grabbed a plaster like liquid and spread it over my legs and wings. Luckily, I was very thin and this did not affect my look too much. She showed me what I looked like and honestly, I was a mess. But Rarity was not done, she floated a purple dye down from a shelf and dyed my body majestic purple. While it was drying, she took a pair of contact lenses and made my eyes dark pink. Finally, she gave my mane and tail a makeover: pulled up, back, and purple with pink highlights. She told me to look in the mirror. My eyes hurt, my mane was dyed, my wings tied, but I looked very good. Twilight seemed to think so too. “Are you sure there’s no charge?” Twilight asked Rarity. “Absolutely, it’s free for my friend.” She replied. Twilight told me to wait outside while she talked to Rarity, but I happened to overhear what they said. “So how long does it stay on?” I heard my aunt ask. “As long as you don’t scrub it off, and just make sure she doesn’t get very angry, that will almost melt the plaster off!” They said their goodbyes and Twilight came out to me. She told me we were going for a little outing before returning to the library and I was excited to see what life would bring, even if it meant going to buy some cherries. We visited every store in Ponyville but one, Sugar Cube Corner. Twilight said that we couldn’t risk Pinkie Pie. I did not know who that was but by the time we had returned to the tree house, my name was Grapy Joy, I was a unicorn, and I was being baby-sat by Twilight Sparkle, who I referred to as Twily. That was my story, one of four I had to memorize and play along with. I hopped this would be enough to keep who I was hidden. Around my newly purple neck hung a little gold locket with a splash of pink on its side. As I returned to my new home that night, I remembered Chaos, and how I promised my hasty return. I was trying to rush things along, but I realized, I couldn’t rush anything anymore so I would just have to wait it out. As I slid into the bed by the stairs after a daisy salad dinner, my wings itched from the left over plaster. The remove makeup spell had missed a bit under my wings. That night, I had a very strange dream. I was walking in a forest, or more specifically, out of one. I had just found my way into a large clearing, grand old trees on all sides. At the center was a smooth white table, and at this table was an earth pony stallion. This Stallion was a very dark blue and speckled white, such that his coat looked like the night sky on a bright a starry night in the countryside. I saw that his eyes were almost Hearth’s Warming flame colored, shining, and looking at me. “Well this is rare; no one has ever come here by accident. Then it must not be an accident that you are here. My name is Starry Eyed, don’t worry, I’m friendly.” Starry was friendly, I just knew. I could tell he wanted to be helpful, but he looked worried about something. Those eyes of his seemed to see my heart and soul, and his eyes reflected a friend’s concern. “You have a right to be afraid Skyla, but don’t let fear make you do something you’ll regret. Fear allows for courage, but it can also lead to despair unchecked.” I knew he wanted to help me, but he wasn’t making any sense. “I cannot help it if I am afraid, Starry Eyed. The whole world seems like it’s out to get me.” Starry leaned back in his seat, “I was only making an observation. My talent is cultivation.” I responded without thinking, “Obviously, you’re an earth pony.” As soon as the words left my mouth I covered it with my hooves, I really hadn’t meant to say something so rude. “I so sorry, I only meant…” “It’s quite alright, I’m not even mad. But you didn’t let me finish. I’m a green mage; I draw out the potential power in others. My special talent is that I can see the potential in anything, and draw it out. Hence, cultivation.” I was glad he wasn’t offended, but didn’t understand him after that, “I beg your pardon?” Starry clapped his hooves together, “I’ll give you a demonstration. Far from my best work, but the most I can do on short notice.” From the moment he had clapped his hooves the locket Chaos gave me had shone like a star, and as he finished speaking the light went out. “What did you do? This is really important to me!” I screamed at him, afraid he’d damaged my most precious possession. “I know it is, that’s why I chose it. You’re not likely to lose THAT. I gave it a bit of my power, the ability to see the way things really are. Just tell it what you’d like to see, it’ll do the rest.” I didn’t know what to say, so I tested it to see if he was telling the truth, “Show me Castle Canterlot.” Suddenly I was in the Castle again. In reality it was a vision from the locket, but I didn’t figure that out until later. It was dark, and the palace was empty. But I felt someone come up behind me, and heard Shimmering Arms whisper in my ear, “Keep on running little princess, I will catch you. I promise, you won’t get the chance to come back and ruin my plans. I swear, you will not come home alive!” I felt what I can only guess was Starry pulling me out of that vision and pinching me awake. I woke from that nightmare to realize it was only a dream; I was in the library, safe and sound. The night was only half over, 4 more hours of potential nightmares. I was here, away from all that haunted me so far, but I couldn’t help but wonder; was that real?
