//------------------------------// // Travel Preparations (Chapter 1) // Story: The Chronicles of Star Well // by Eragon5055 //------------------------------// Chapter One: Travel Preparations "Another dead end." Star Well closed the book as he sat back on his flank. 'This spell won't do' he thought 'I guess I have no other options left.' He been putting this idea off for a while, ever since he started looking for the answer, he entertained the idea, but thought it was probably best not to bother her, after all, she probably had no idea who he was. Failure after failure after failure, he promised himself that this would be his last effort before he tried for her help, but the solution was beyond his grasp, and nopony in Equestria, besides the princesses, was as smart as her. "Screwball, we have some packing to do. We leave for Ponyville tomorrow!" Inside his Canterlot apartment, Star Well packed up some rations and other essentials into his travel bags while checking over his finances. 'I've got this month's rent paid and the next months bill isn't due for about 26 days and with that recent job at the radio tower I should have plenty of bits to justify a trip, still I can't linger for too long. The longest I can stay gone is for about a week. It is about half a day's travel to Ponyville, so I got a little more than five days to get help from Miss Twilight and explore the sites.' The midnight blue unicorn pondered as he worked as to why he put off asking Twilight for help for so long, he had always wanted to meet the beautiful mare ever since his he first saw her at Celestia side when he was in Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns (the CSGU). Besides, he thought, he had plenty of other reasons why he wanted to visit Ponyville. He had always wanted to the famous Apple families Zap Apple Jam, and he heard rumors that a zebra live near the town. The things he could learn on zebra magic! He also didn't forget that Equestria's leading expert on humans also lived there. His second most important reason, though, had to do with the mare flying in loops around in his room busy with her own packing. He had no idea why how she had got here. One day, less than a year ago, he found the unusual mare in his bed after he came home from grocery shopping. While most stallions would love to have a mare in their beds, He was more concerned on why she was there and how the earth pony got in. He also found out at that moment just how unique she was. "Umm... Who are you and what are you doing on my bed?" "pan a gnikaT" She replied groggily "What?" "peels emos teg ot gniyrt ma I .teiuq eb esaelP" It had taken him a few days for him to understand what she was saying, and it even then it could him headaches trying to translate her. He eventually made created a translation spell for her so that he could get a straight answer from her without the migraines. Having a random mare show-up at his house and suddenly setting up residence was troublesome to say the least. He tried to get a new place for her to live at, but he couldn't afford to pay for a second apartment and the mare evidently had no money. He decided to let her stay until she could support herself but her attempts to get and keep a job were nothing short of a disaster, especially her attempt to work at the local fancy restaurant... "You just broke the fine China!!!" "They don't look like they were from China, they were probably from Taiwan." What!?! What in the name of Celestia is Taiwan...? THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT!" The incident had cost Star a fair amount of bits. In the end, Star decided to let the mare stay in his apartment and work with him as an assistant to help with his workload. He soon got used to the mare living with him, and was happy for the company she provided. Her random antics made each day more interesting and she constantly amazed him with the things she could do. He found that she could fly using her pinwheel hat even though she was an earth pony and he sometimes swore she could teleport when he wasn't looking. He asked you soon after he met her where she was from, which the mare replied "Ponyville, I think. It's the first place I remember." While she acted nonchalant with her answer, Star knew that it bothered her that she didn't know who she was and where she truly came from. Even if she didn't press the issue, Star decided to help her. Going to Ponyville might provide answers that they were both looking for. She was his first real friend in the longest time, and even if he failed in his own quest, he would not give up on helping his friend. Star Well was almost finished packing, and looking for his money bag when He spotted it under his spell journal. He briefly thought of taking his journal with him, who knows, maybe inspiration would hit him during his trip and he could get a head-start on a new spell project for the Canterlot College. 'That reminds me' he thought 'I should probably write a letter to the College to tell them of my absence, I think I mail it when I leave tomorrow after I stop at the repair shop to Ol' Wrench I am going to use my vacation time for this week. Star Well worked as Spell Smith, It was his job to come with solutions to arcane problems by researching spells and sometimes by creating new variations on spells, repair and recast old enchantments and arcane devices and even creating new spells entirely. When Star was not given a specific problem, he invested his time into just inventing spells and spell variations for the future and that was most often the case. Star recorded 38 spells, and spell variations since he got out of the College that he could call his own. In fact the most recent spell he created, a Memory Enhancer which aloud a pony to remember forgotten details, though did not work for what he intended it to do was congratulated by the College for how useful it turned out to be. The other spell he discovered around the same time though, a Memory lock spell after searching for a way to search his earliest memories, probably was not suited for the public. Besides, Star still can't find where he put his old quill after testing the spell. While being a Spell Smith was his dream job ever since he was a little colt, it didn't pay much. He was forced to find a part time job to pay for the expenses of living in Canterlot, and found a job out the chariot repair shop called Rolling with Style. It was a nice place to work, but the Supervisor, Rusty Wrench, was surprised that a unicorn was willing to get his hands dirty, even one as big as he was. "Well, I you look strong enough, still I nev'r seen a unicorn good at fix'in" Don't worry sir, I am a fast learner and I've never had a problem with working hard with my hooves. "O.K. Let's see what ya can do." Both Wrench and Star were surprised how easily he took to the job. He even did well without using his magic to play fair in the yearly contest of Chariot Speed Repair between the other employees of the company, but he never won, being as tall has he was didn't hurt either. The job kept him in shape and he was glad that it forced him to learn to cook instead of surviving on fast food like McHayolds to survive. After finishing packing, Star went to his mirror. If he was going to meet Equestria's greatest spell caster, he was going to look at least presentable. The midnight blue stallion messed with his unruly jet black mane that had a single long strip of sky blue in it and his tail. He checked the lines under his eyes weren't too prominent from lack of sleep after late night study. Star Well was unusually tall for a unicorn, and he felt very self conscious about it, especially when it made him standout. His cutie mark was also unusual, at its center was a pitch black dot that would be hard to see if there wasn't streaks of white bending and swirling towards the center giving the impression that they being sucked to the center. When he was finished, he finally decided that to go to bed. He would need to be well rested for the journey he needed to take the next day. He went up to his couch and levitated the pullout mattress. "Screwy, you better get some rest. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow." "Okey Dokey Artichokey!" the swirl-eyed mare called from her-bedroom-that-used-to-be-his-bedroom. 'One of these days' he thought 'I need to get myself a new bed so I don't have to sleep on the couch everynight.' He then proceeded to go to a reluctant sleep, anxious for what the next week would bring. Note: The tags for Characters on this story cannot fit all major players. I try but it only allows five. Additional Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, (Character not Revealed)