//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Friendship is Everything // by Leathebluedrgon //------------------------------// ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Prologue~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~Ponyville~~~~~~ "Finally! It's finished," Mayor Mare said as the construction ponies walked off the site. The mayor was looking at a newly built house on the top of a hill. It was near the Everfree forest, but far enough away to still feel safe for ponies. It was right next to the road to Sweet Apple Acres. The house itself was two stories, three bedrooms, two bath. "Now we have more housing for any new ponies that come to Ponyville," she said turning around, almost walking straight into Pinkie Pie. "Are there any new ponies yet?" Pinkie asked, bouncing all the while. "Pinkie, the house was just built," Twilight said walking up behind her to look at the house. "Why did you chose to build the house that close to the Everfree forest?" Twilight asked the mayor. Mayor Mare thought about it for a couple of minutes, then gained a look of confusion. "I don't know. It just popped into my head and I felt as if I couldn't ignore the idea," the mayor said as she walked back to Town Hall. Twilight watched her go, confused. She looked back at the house on top of the hill, and began to wonder. ~~~~~~~~~~~~Meanwhile, Somewhere in the Everfree Forest~~~~~~~~~~~~ Six stallions lay asleep in a clearing. Two unicorns, two pegusi and two earth ponies. Two of the six were missing limbs. The earth pony with a silver coat and a pure white mane and tail, whose cutie mark was a orange bull bucking, and he wore a stetson hat; had robotic hind legs, both strapped to his body. And the other was a pegusas with a blue coat and a grey mane and tail, whose cutie mark was a forest green snake; had robotic wings, both strapped to his body as well. The smallest of the two unicorns was the first to stir. He had a crimson coat stained with oil, with a pure blonde mane and tail,both sticking up at some points by oil, his cutie mark was three grey gears interlocked with each other. The unicorn raised his head and looked at his surroundings, then the other five ponies. His expression not changing in the slightest, as if he had woken many times to this. He stood and stretched, then walked over to the other unicorn, who had a pure blonde coat stained with paint, and a crimson mane and tail, his cutie mark being a paintbrush with deep blue paint at the tip. The smaller unicorn prodded the bigger one in the side, who grunted and flicked his eyes open, yawning. "I take it it's time to get moving," the bigger one said with a smirk as he got up. "I'll wake up Bull's Eye and Thunderstorm," he said turning towards the earth pony with the stetson hat. The smaller unicorn nodded, rolling his eyes, and headed towards the smallest pony of the group. He was a pure white earth pony with silver spiked-mohawk styled mane and spiky tail, his cutie mark was a microphone. The small unicorn prodded him awake too. The spiky pony's eyes flew open and he sprang to his feet, fear clear on his face. He looked around frantically at first, then upon realizing where he was, he breathed a sigh of relief, and grinned widely, showing off pearly white teeth. "What'd ya want me to do A.I.?" the spiky pony asked the red unicorn, sounding as if he didn't just wake up, or freak out. "Just wait for Bull's Eye to wake up," the red unicorn, A.I., responded without emotion. The spiky pony nodded in confirmation as A.I. started heading towards the pegusas with robotic wings. A.I. again, prodded the pony awake. The blue pegusas fluttered his eyes open, and stood up and stretched. The pegusas nodded his head in greeting while yawning. A.I. looked over at the other unicorn and both earth ponies trying to wake up the other pegusas. The pegusas still asleep had a grey coat and blue mane and tail, and his cutie mark was a grey cloud with yellow lightning shooting out of it. "Come on, let's go wake up Thunderstorm," A.I. said to the blue pegusas as he headed towards the grey one. "Yo, bro, think you can help?" the bigger unicorn asked A.I., who still had yet to change his expression. "Snakescales, can you cause it to rain on your older brother," A.I. asked the blue pegusas behind him. Snakescales nodded and unfurled his robotic wings. It sounded like regular pegusas wings unfurling, strangely enough, Snakescales also took to the skies with ease, heading towards a cloud nearby. Soon enough, rain was pouring over the bigger pegusas, Thunderstorm. Thunderstorm woke up and flew straight through the cloud, fast enough for it to disperse. The wet Thunderstorm then flew back down to the ground and shook off as much water as he could. He smiled and looked at the ever calm A.I. "Morning" he said, A.I. looked at the sky, "More like afternoon," he said. Thunderstorm looked up then turned his head back to A.I, "That was not my fault," he said, he smile gone. The pony with the hat laughed. "Oh, you know it wasn't my fault Bull's Eye," Thunderstorm said to the silver pony with a smirk on his face. "I know," the silver pony, Bull's Eye, said. "But it is still funny how you always say that when we leave late," he finished with a chuckle. "Alright, you know the protocol," A.I. said, walking backwards so he stood in the middle of the clearing. The rest of the ponies groaned as they went into a line of tallest to shortest. "Hookfang..." A.I. said, "Here," responded the paint stained unicorn. "Bull's Eye..." A.I. continued, "Here," Bull's Eye responded with a nod. "Thunderstorm is here...." A.I. said as the pony in question layed down. "Snakescales..." Snake just nodded. A.I. nodded back. "And last but not least... White Out," A.I. finished, "Ooooh, ooooh, I'm here!" the spiky pony said jumping raising one of his hooves. A.I. nodded, "Everpony's here, time to get going," he said turning around and walking out of the clearing, the other ponies following not far behind. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Couple Hours Later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~Outskirts of the new House~~~~~~~~ A.I. looked at the town from the edge of the Everfree forest, making sure to stay in the shadows. He took note of all the ponies in town, seeing how they react to certain ponies and what they buy. He sat down behind some bushes and looked over his shoulder. "The sun will go down in a couple more hours, then we can get the house to fit our needs," A.I. said in his still unsettling calm way. Thunderstorm and White Out groaned, not loud enough to catch any nearby pony's attention, but still loud enough to be heard by A.I., who was two bush sets away from them. A.I. turned back towards the town, rolling his eyes. "What are we supposed to do while we wait?" asked an annoyed Thunder. "If you go a good distance back, you could do whatever you want, however loud you want," A.I. responded without looking back at them. "But we would have to come straight back as soon as we get that good of a distance away," whined White. "Exactly, I guess you'll have to do what you always do. Keep each other awake," A.I. answered. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Couple Hours Later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Ow, I was awake!" Thunder hissed at White, "Yeah but I wasn't," White responded with a yawn. A.I. looked at the town again, hoping so much that its residents had all went to bed. To his pleasure, not that he showed it, no ponies were in sight and the only sounds the group heard were the heartbeats of all the ponies in the town, plus theirs, and the deep rhythms of breathing, meaning all were asleep. A.I. stood up and stretched his legs, he heard rustling behind him signaling that his friends and brother were all standing now. He motioned his head to the house, the rest nodded and they walked out of the forest straight to the back door. Once they were all inside Hookfang closed the door, it was pitch black inside, didn't bother them in the slightest. They walked up the stairs. There were three rooms, the first door was in front, it looked large enough to be a master bedroom, it had no closet though, so it would be perfect for the use that A.I. was going to use it for. The one of the other bedroom doors was to the right of the stairs, it was slightly smaller than the master bedroom, Hookfang summoned three beds and place them in certain ways in the room. A grey bed with yellow lightning strikes on it was right below the window, a tan bed with bucking bulls on it was closest to the door to the hallway, and a deep blue bed with paint brushes on it was closest to the closet. Which Hookfang also filled with blank canvas's, paint cans, paint brushes and a stand for the canvas's. Thunder flew straight to the grey bed, went under the covers, and fell asleep. Bull walked tiredly to the tan bed, placing his hat on one of the four posts, he crawled into bed and fell asleep soon after Thunder. Fang yawned and trotted to the last bed, magically lifting up the covers crawling into bed and fell asleep, letting the covers drop on top of him. The three younger stallions headed to the last bedroom that was to the left of the stairs. Like Fang, A.I. summoned three beds, and placed them in certain places. A white bed with microphones on it was placed closest to the door to the hall, a crimson bed with gears on it was placed at the wall opposite of the window, and a green bed with snakes on it was placed closest to the closet. Which now had Snakescales best friend, Diablo, a rattlesnake, in a glass case with a heat lamp over it. White yawned, "See ya tomorrow," he said as he trotted into his bed and fell asleep, not even bothering with the covers. Snake nodded in agreement, but flew to Diablo first, taking him out of the case, leaving the light on, and taking Diablo to bed. Which, upon getting under the covers, both soon fell fast asleep. A.I., however, left the room and headed towards the master bedroom. He stood in the doorway, examining the room. He nodded and summoned his equipment. His workbench, which he placed underneath the window. His toolbox, to the left of the workbench. His cabinet full of blueprints of future devices, which he put in the corner closest to where the closet should have been. A.I. looked around the room in satisfaction, it was just how he liked it. He closed the blinds on the window and went to work the rest of the night away.