Cordon woke up late in the morning as he always did every day. He got up and walked to the window, looking out at the other ponies playing in the streets. He headed for the door to go and play hoofball with them. He tried to sneak past the kitchen where his maid was cooking breakfast.
"If sneakier you want to be, you’ll have to try harder to get past me." His maid said from across the kitchen, without turning her back. Cordon cringed as his maid spoke to him; he never had been able to sneak past her before.
"I’ll get you one day, you just wait." Cordon replied.
"Don't forget your Dad has lessons to teach you today, so you do not lead the city astray.
"I'll just be outside with the other ponies."
Cordon walked out the door and made his way in between the other houses. He came across a few of his buddies about to play a game of hoofball. He hurried to stand in line as they chose teams. Cordon was one of the first in his class to get his cutie mark and therefore considered himself the senior of the class. His cutie mark was made of a singular blue circle surrounded by curved lines, making a spiral. He thought it went well with his grey-purple fur and his grey mane. He was one of the first picked, as usual. His special talent was his speed and stamina. He could run fast and farther than others without getting too tired.
The hot desert day wore on as Cordon and the other ponies played. As Cordon had the ball, he weaved through the other teams players and ran towards the goal. Just as he was about to step a hoof in the end zone, he was tackled by a pony from his left. He looked up from the ground to see his Dad leaning over him with a grin on his face.
"Get off me, Dad!"
Cordon's Dad got off of him and helped him up. "Let's go, I have a lot of things to show you."
As they walked through the city, Cordon had every building explained to him in excruciating detail about it's history and purpose. As they neared the end of the tour, they reached the southern edge of the city. Cordon looked out across the barren desert in front of him.
"This is the desert that protects us from anything that might want to harm any pony. The closest we are to any other pony is 11 miles away. Any ponies willing to make the trip here would really want to harm us. When you take my place as chief, you will be in charge of protecting this city."
Cordon looked out across the cast desert before him and noticed a dust cloud rolling in from the east.
"Dad, what's that?" Cordon said as he pointed a hoof to the dust cloud.
"It's just a dust cloud, the dust control team will take care of it."
They stayed for a few more minutes staring into the desert.
"Do you know what's for breakfast?" Cordon’s Dad asked.
"No, but it smelled delicious this morning."
With that, they walked home to eat breakfast and continue their day.
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Cordon woke up to the horrifying sounds of screaming. The screams instantly put him on edge as he sat up and looked out the window that was closest to his bed. Still groggy from sleep, he could barely make out the flickerings of a fire. Most of the screams had subsided as Cordon got out of his bed, slowly walking to the door.
As he got closer to the door, the smell of smoke became stronger. He opened the door, looking around, and saw ponies running and houses burning. Everything clicked in his mind as he recalled the dust cloud from earlier. As he turned to run back into his house, he was grabbed and thrown into a cart with all the other young ponies in the town, the force of impact instantly knocking him out. Half of the young fillies were crying, and the other half unconscious. The cart raced forward, and didn't seem to slow down. As the cart rolled along, one of the wheels hit a large rock and knocked him and a few others out of the cart.
As the cart rolled away, a zebra ran from the cover of a nearby porch, grabbed Cordon and quickly carried him back under the porch. She pulled a powder out of her pouch and mixed it with some water until it became a paste. The zebra fed the small bowl of paste to Cordon as she softly whispered "Do not worry my young friend, for I will protect you from your end. As soon as these invaders are clear, we will get out of here." She laid next to Cordon until the attack was over, and cautiously headed south.
Twilight Sparkle was in her study reading a large book that she had got from the Canterlot library. Princess Celestia had allowed her access to the private Starswirl the Bearded section, and she had taken full advantage of the privileges. A loud knock came from the front door and she stood up to go answer it, stretching out the stiffness in her legs and wings. The knock came again as she walked to the front door of the library. She opened the door to see Cordon standing impatiently.
"Hey Twilight, I got these books to return." Cordon said as he walked in.
Twilight glanced at the saddlebag holding several of her books. "You read those surprisingly fast."
“Do you have anymore books about the land outside of Equestria?” Cordon asked.
“I gave you all the books that I had that even mentioned the topic. I might have a map.” Twilight said as she pulled out a piece of paper.
“This is a map of how much we know of the lands outside of Equestria.” She flattened out the paper to reveal it to be blank. As she continued to draw a single circle in the middle. “That circle, is Equestria.”
“That doesn’t help me! Do you know if there are any ponies outside of Equestria?” Cordon asked
“Why are you so interested in the badlands? There is nothing out there but the desert and the Changelings.” Twilight glanced out the window and saw the edge of the Everfree Forest. “Hey! maybe you could go ask Zecora! She isn’t from Equestria, maybe she knows something.”
Cordon’s eyes lit up. He quickly put the books he was carrying on the table and headed for the still open door. As he got close Twilight closed it with her magic, causing him to nearly crash into it.
“Do you even know how to get to Zecora’s cottage?”
Cordon paused realizing Twilight was right. “Do you want to come with me then?” Cordon asked.
“I am far too busy with my studies, maybe you could ask Rainbow Dash to come with you, She is always up for a trip into the Everfree Forest.”
“Thanks!” Cordon said as he opened the door and ran out. He walked to his house, eager to get some rest. He walked in his house, grabbed some hay out of a cupboard and grazed it out of his hoof as he walked up the stairs into his bedroom. It took him several minutes to finish the hay, but once he did, he didn't have a problem falling asleep.
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"Fire... Smoke... Destruction.... Dad... WUH!" Cordon screamed as a familiar figure shook him out of his dreams. He waited a few seconds for his eyes to focus. "You really don't need to scare me out of my sleep like that, Redheart."
"The neighbors were having complaints again. Did you eat hay right before bed again last night? You know that hay gives you bad dreams."
"I’m sorry, I thought that I was building up a tolerance."
"What were your dreams about tonight?"
"Same as every other bad dream that I have."
"You really should come in and see a psychologist. From what the neighbors are telling me, your dreams are getting seeming worse."
“I don’t need a psychologist!” Cordon said forcefully.
“Well, your dreams never do come back twice on the same night, I’ll head back the to hospital, unless you want me to stay.”
“No, you can go. I don’t think there will be a another problem tonight.” Cordon said as he got out of his bed and led nurse Redheart to the front door.
“I’ll see you tomorrow night.” Cordon said as Redheart walked out the door. When she was clear, he closed the door and walked into his kitchen. He quickly made himself a sandwich and headed upstairs back into his bedroom. As he ate his sandwich, he pulled out a blank piece of paper. He drew a small circle and labeled it “Equestria”. He laid it down on his nightstand and slowly slipped into sleep.
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Cordon woke up as the sunshine hit his eyes. He excitedly got up and threw on his saddle bag. He grabbed a quill and the piece of paper he had written on the night before and stuffed them into his saddle bag. He walked out his front door and locked it behind him. As he walked, he thought about where Rainbow Dash could be. If she was in Cloudsdale, he would have to wait until she came down, which could take days. Then he remembered Rainbow Dash always takes a morning nap next the the Ponyville pond. Cordon ran through a few back streets and eventually found the path leading to the pond. As he was walking towards the pond, a loud *BANG* sounded right behind him. Cordon yelled, and ran to the nearest bush, hearing laughter from a cloud above him.
“Rainbow Dash! You don’t need to do that every time you see me.”
“You should have seen your face! you jumped like five feet and ran faster than the even I could fly!”
“Rainbow Dash, want to do me a favor?” Cordon said as he brushed the leaves from the bush off his fur.
“Yeah sure, what do you need?” She said as she flew down and landed next to him.
“Do you want to take me to Zecora’s cottage? I need to get some information from her.”
“Yeah sure, I don’t mind a little trip into the forest.”
“Awesome, when would you be ready to leave?”
“Meet me at the edge of the forest in an hour, and then we can go.”
“Thanks, see you in an hour!” Cordon said as he trotted back to his house.
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Cordon impatiently waited next to the forest, constantly glancing towards Ponyville, hoping to see the cyan pony every time. It had been well over an hour, and Cordon was about to go in the forest alone. Just before Cordon could set a hoof in the forest, he felt his hair start standing up. He looked up to see a small dark cloud with electricity jumping all around the bottom. He looked over to the left a little bit and saw rainbow dash silently laughing herself out of the cloud she was sitting in.
“It’s not working Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said from the cloud above Cordon.
Rainbow Dash flew over to her and quickly explained what she was doing wrong, finishing with “You have to do it like this” as she lifted her front hooves. Cordon saw what was about to come and started to run, but Rainbow Dash was too quick, and for the second time today, he was electrocuted.
Both of the pegasi in the clouds broke into uncontrollable laughter.
Annoyed, Cordon patiently waited until they lighted down next to him.
“Ready to go?” Cordon asked in a slightly annoyed voice.
“Yep!” Rainbow and Scootaloo said in unison. After they all made sure their packs weren’t missing any items, they walked into the forest, towards Zecora’s hut.
