//------------------------------// // Arrival in Ponyville // Story: Adventures With Toshio in Ponyville // by Midnight Leaf //------------------------------// So, you want to know about my adventures in Ponyville, eh? Well, before I tell you, I've got a few things to say. First thing’s first: I’m Toshio, a unicorn from Manehatten with a knack for making computers and other little devices. My coat is colored in a mix of violet and navy blue, and my mane is colored green with red stripes in it. I tend to wear a pair of large glasses that are very popular with technological ponies like me nowadays, with the lenses colored blue. Now that you know what I look like, I guess it’s time to start telling you about my time in Ponyville, and why I’m even writing a journal about it in the first place. I’m sort of new to writing journals, so I guess I’ll just start right off the bat, from when I arrived in Ponyville on the train from Manehatten… I stepped out of my train car and took a good look around the relatively small station. A few ponies around me were going to and from the train, bringing their various luggage along with them, and greeting one another. Sure is peaceful compared to Manehatten’s train station I thought to myself, remembering the large crowds of ponies all cramming themselves onto trains, arguing over ticket prices with attendants, or simply arguing amongst themselves over misplaced luggage. As I stood there, daydreaming of my old home, I suddenly was bumped into from behind, and I fell forward onto my face, losing my balance due to my lack of focus. “You OK?” A grey pegasus with a blonde-haired mane and tail asked, leaning her head in next to mine and staring at me with a pair of eyes that didn’t exactly focus properly. Each eye appeared to be looking at her nose, one angled slightly upwards, the other further down. “Yeah, sorry, I was daydreaming.” I replied with a grunt, face still pressed in the ground. “I just don’t know what went wrong. Sorry mister!” “It’s perfectly fine,” I said, picking me and my small suitcase up off the ground, “What’s…your…name?” I looked around, and saw that the strange pegasus had somehow disappeared. “That’s strange…” Well, I might as well get a move on… before something else happens. I then used a telekinesis spell to pick up my suitcase, and headed into the town to try and find a place to stay for the night. This town sure is…different from Manehatten I thought to myself as I walked through Ponyville, absentmindedly levitating my suitcase behind me and looking around at the various houses and ponies. I wonder what everypony talks about in this town, because I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have to do with stocks and the like. Wow, look at that mare. She looks…happy. I saw a pink earth pony with a cotton candy-like mane, bouncing along the side of the path, humming some weird tune, and smiling like she had just been visited by Celestia herself. I trailed along behind her, curious as to what had her so happy, and ended up following the strange pony for about five minutes as she just kept bouncing around town. As I was just about to give up following her and turned around to walk away, she suddenly appeared right in front of me, and I jumped back in fright, dropping my suitcase. “AAH!” “Hi!” The strange mare said, beaming at me, “I’m Pinkie Pie! Why are you following me? Was it fun? OOH, OOH! I wanna try, especially if it’s super duper fun, because that makes it even better!” She suddenly gasped. “I’ve never seen you before! And if I’ve never seen you before, then that means that you’re new here, and that means you’ve never been to one of my parties, and that means you’re probably all sad, and that you need one of my parties to cheer you up!!!” She gasped loudly again, and then zoomed past me and disappeared. I just stood there, trying to piece together what had just happened. “It seems as if you’ve met Pinkie.” A female voice (with a slight lilt of a regal accent) said from behind me. “How did- what the- HUH?” I turned around and standing before me was a grey mare, with black hair, purple eyes, and a treble clef for a cutie mark. She wore a slightly amused expression on her face as she looked at me. She chuckled softly, “Don’t worry; we all are just as confused as you are right now when we first met her. You end up getting used to it.” The mare shook her head back and forth slowly, and then stuck out her right hoof to shake. “My name is Octavia. What’s yours?” After a few seconds, I finally recovered from my shock and took Octavia’s hoof, shaking it. “My name is Toshio. I arrived on the train from Manehatten today.” “Sounds interesting. Why would you come here to Ponyville all the way from Manehatten?” “Well, it’s quite a long story…” “Oh, please share. I don’t often meet a pony all the way from Manehatten here in little old Ponyville.” “Well, I guess I could tell you then… but I need to find somewhere to stay first, so-“ “Oh, I could provide you a home until you find one of your own.” I took a step back in astonishment. “You’d let me stay in your home just like that?” Nopony gets treated with this much kindness, right off the bat anyways, in Manehatten… “Of course. You are a pony in need of a home, and I am in need of a good story, so it’s mutually beneficial.” “Well I suppose so…” “Great, we’ll just grab your luggage and you can begin telling me your story on the way then.” I picked up my suitcase with a telekinesis spell, and began following Octavia towards her house, telling my tale of how I ended up coming to Ponyville… I guess my story started in a small Manehatten café, sitting at a table with my one and only friend, Gustline. Gustline was a tall pegasus mare, with a lime green coat, striped white and red mane and tail, and a cutie mark that looked like a breath of wind. Her special talent was being able to manipulate wind, which she used to make her job in weather patrol easier. She tends to hold herself in a unique way; she does whatever she wants, when she wants, and couldn’t care less what others think. It’s one of the things that contributed to our friendship, though she could get a bit unbearable at times with her opinions. She was actually acting in that near-unbearable way in the café that day. “Tell me you’re joking.” Gustline scoffed as I nibbled on some coffee cake. I swallowed the cake in my mouth, and sighed. “I’m telling you, I just feel like-“ “Feel like what? Leaving your friend behind and starting a new life? Don’t forget, mister, I was the one who got you your cutie mark in the first place! So now you’re just gonna leave me behind and-“ “Gustline, I’m not trying to leave you behind. You’re my best friend.” “I’m your ONLY friend.” “And that’s what I’m trying to say, Gustline. I want to be able to make more friends, and branch out more. Don’t get me wrong, you’re an amazing pegasus, but you can’t always be there to hang out or talk. In fact, you’re gone most of each day.” “Well it’s not my fault I have to work on weather patrol...” Gustline trailed off, realizing what I was saying. “Why can’t you just make new friends here, in Manehatten?” “You know that’s not possible. Everypony here is too busy to stop for idle chat, or they just don’t care. Even you and I met elsewhere, in-“ “Minneighsota, I know.” She sighed and hung her head in defeat as she realized my point. “So where do you want to move to?” “I don’t know yet. I’m thinking a small suburb, but I might just try my hoof at every new place I find.” “What’s going to happen to all your clients here? All the people you’ve sold your devices to?” “I’ve been working on a helper computer at my apartment to copy and leave with everypony who’s paid for my computers.” She kept staring at her plate. “Guess you thought of everything.” “Nah, there’s an app for that.” Gustline playfully punched me on the shoulder, visibly looking a little happier. “Well then, I guess you’re set for a new life outside Manehatten.” “Guess so,” I said with a grin, “Don’t worry, I’ll send you a postcard, hehe” “OK, now you’re just rubbing the fact that I lost the argument in my face.” I feigned offense, putting a forehoof over my heart, “I say! Why in all of Equestria would you think that of me!” She laughed, and punched my other shoulder. “Come on, goofball, we should finish eating.” I laughed as well, then picked up my coffee cake and continued nibbling on it as our conversation went on to less important things, until Gustline had to go do some work, made me pay for the meal, and bid me goodbye, flying up into the clouds. I stared up at where she had punched through, and then headed to my apartment to start packing my very few belongings. One Week Later… I sat at the ramp that went up into the train car, hugging Gustline goodbye. “You better come back to give me that postcard in person, mister.” Gustline said, poking me in the chest with her hoof. “Wouldn’t dream of giving it to you any other way.” I grinned. “Good. Now get out of my sight before I get all emotional and fly you back to your apartment and make you stay there.” She said with the barest hint of a sniffle. I smiled sadly, and walked up the ramp into the train. The ticket collector, a peach colored unicorn walked lazily throughout the aisle, taking everypony’s tickets. He eventually reached my seat, and asked in a monotonous tone: “Ticket, please.” I showed him my ticket. He used his horn to pick it up, placed it into a bag at his waist, and then continued on at the same bored pace until he had collected every ticket. Soon after the last ticket was collected, the conductor came through the door on the front of the train and cleared his throat to get everypony’s attention. “Alright, everypony, now that all of the tickets have been collected, I’d like to personally welcome you all to Equestria’s National Railway. Our first stop is going to be a little town called Ponyville, and we’ll be travelling through Cockatrice Pass to get there. So settle in, everypony, it’s going to be a long and bumpy ride!” Eventually, the rocking motions of the train lulled me to sleep. In retrospect, there was really nothing to do on that train except stare at the passing countryside, so it wasn’t that hard to fall asleep. “…and I woke up once the train had reached Ponyville. So far, it’s a nice town, and looks promising, so I guess I’ll stay here for a while, and if things don’t work out, I’ll simply move on to the next stop.” I shrugged. The story had taken me a while to complete, just as I had said it would. Octavia and I had walked across town to her house, a simple establishment with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a small kitchen, and a luxurious living room, where we were now. The living room was adorned with a small fireplace, which had a few pieces of furniture sitting near them. There was a couch, an armchair, and a loveseat. I was sitting in the armchair, near the stairs that led up to the three bedrooms. As I finished my story, Octavia, who was sitting on the couch, nodded with understanding. “I can fully understand and respect your reasons for coming here. Hopefully Ponyville is the place for you; I think I could get used to having you around here.” “Thanks. Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you: why do you have three bedrooms here if it’s just you living here?” “Oh, I don’t live alone.” Octavia then muttered something incomprehensible. “I’m sorry, what was that?” “Oh, nothing. But yes, I have a…roommate.” “Well, that makes more sense. Who’s your roommate?” “I…don’t want to discuss her right now. You’ll eventually meet her.” I stared at her with a confused expression. It was quite obvious that she was trying to hide or just forget something. After a few moments, she noticed my staring, shook her head violently, and proceeded to change the subject: “Would you like me to show you your room now?” “Umm…sure I guess.” We walked up the stairs, and upon reaching the top, passed two doors directly across from each other; one adorned with a picture of a cello, the other with a picture of a record. Directly in front of us was a blank white door; inside it was a simple room, with a small dresser, a bed sized for two, and a lot of space. Octavia turned and swept her hoof around the room. “Well, this is it. Not much, but we don’t exactly get many visitors that stay long enough to…personalize it, I guess is the right term. Most simply leave within…well, a day, and tell their friends about the…experience.” “It sure has a lot of space,” I said, looking around the room, mind already working towards how to make it fit my personality more. Octavia sure seems nervous about me staying here. Almost as if she’s thinking I’ll leave tomorrow like everypony else… wonder why? “Yes, sorry about that, but as I said before, we don’t-“ “I like it. Lots of space means a bigger work area.” I said as I trotted around the room, not really focused, placing things left and right in my head. When I was finished organizing everything in my head, which thing would go where, I turned to Octavia and beamed. “Thank you so much, Octavia!” She stepped back in shock. “You actually like it? But it’s so…empty!” “I’m already thinking of ways to change that.” I said with a grin. //Author’s note: Thank you for reading my first attempt at MLP Fan Fiction. Please point out any errors you see in this script, and let me know what you think, or if I should continue this story. I hoped you enjoyed!