//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Breaking the Cycle // by Graxic //------------------------------// With a loud yawn, the dark unicorn lifted his face from the table. A few pieces of paper fell from his face, remnants of the research he had been doing last night. I must have fallen asleep halfway through, he concluded. He trotted over to the balcony and opened the door with magic, and cast his gaze over Canterlot. Something odd was making him sentimental for the past, missing the only pony he considered to be his friend. For over a year, the one unicorn he had always been overshadowed by had left for PonyVille. Although he had considered Twilight Sparkle to be his friend, she had always had her nose in some book about magic, astronomy or mythology, and she didn't entertain the notion of friends. From what he had heard from the Princesses, she had changed. She had many friends, of all races, Pegasi, Unicorn and Earth ponies alike, and sent weekly letters about friendship to Princess Celestia. Walking out of his house and trotting off to the castle, he began to wonder just to what extent she had changed, and was almost considering asking Princess Celestia for permission to move to PonyVille. When he reached the grand hall, Princess Celestia was already waiting for him. "What is it you want to talk about, Dark Horn?" "Oh, nothing really, it's just-" "-Twilight Sparkle, I know." she finished for him. "How did you know?" he asked, astonished "I guessed." "Honestly?" "Yes." "Well, you're pretty spot-on with your guesses." "I was going to ask you to visit her, anyway." "Why, exactly?" "You deserve some time to relax and make some friends. You're starting to remind me of Twilight Sparkle, before she left." "Fair enough, when should I go?" "I can have a chariot arranged in an hour." "That soon?" "Well, if you don't want to have to wait a whole night to meet anyone, yes." "Do you have any problems with that?" Princess Luna asked. Dark Horn doubted he would ever become accustomed to her not speaking with the Royal Canterlot Voice, or the royal "we". "No, that's fine." ------ Dark Horn stood next to a chariot headed by two armoured pegasi. Turning around to say one final goodbye to Canterlot, he found himself face-to-face with an out-of-breath Shining Armour, accompanied by Princess Cadence. "Hey, Shining Armour, Princess Cadence, what's up?" he said, bowing to Princess Cadence as he addressed her. "I heard you were leaving for PonyVille, so I want you to give this to Twily." he said, levitating a a wrapped package out of his saddlebag and into Dark Horn's. "Will do." he said, waving as he got into the chariot and settled down for the long trip ahead. The feel of wind in his mane, and the view of all of Equestria made him feel a slight twinge of jealousy for the Pegasi. ------ Dark Horn walked towards the Library Treehouse, the place he had been directed to by the town's populace to find Twilight, and knocked on the door. From inside came a call of "Coming!" and the sound of something heavy falling to the floor. "Who is i- Dark Horn?" Twilight asked, opening the door. "Yep, it's me." "Oh my gosh, I haven't seen you for, what, a year and a half?" she said, hugging him. "That sounds about right." "You've gotten taller!" she exclaimed, astonished. Dark Horn looked himself up and down. Sure enough, he was at least two inches taller than Twilight was. "That's odd, I was fully grown already, and we were the same height." "Yeah, it really is odd," she pondered, "Anyway, what brings you to PonyVille?" "Same reason you were sent here." "Well, there's no better place to make friends than in PonyVille," she told him. "That's what I've been told." he said, as they walked off towards the town centre, whilst Dark Horn attempted to scratch his increasingly itchy flanks without being noticed. Twilight and Dark Horn were walking through the streets of Ponyville, when Twilight suggested that the first pony Dark Horn be introduced to should be Rainbow Dash, when they heard a yell of "C'mon Fluttershy, I know you can fly better than that!" Confused, the two unicorns looked around for the source of the cry. Unfortunately, from the one direction they did not look, came a quiet shout of "Watch out." before a yellow pegasus flew into Dark Horn. Both fell to the ground with less of a thud, as expected, so much as a soft thump. Shaking himself, Dark Horn got up and apologised to the pony on top of him. "Oh, no, it's my fault. I should have looked where I was going. You don't have to apologise." she replied. "It's okay," he said, looking down to see that he had landed in a muddy puddle. He attempted to shake the mud out of his coat, but some was still left, and his mane and tail were still matted. "But I am going to need a bath." he sighed. "Fluttershy, what are you doing? You can't just fly into ponies like that!" a cyan-coloured pony with rainbow coloured mane and tail said, landing next to Dark Horn and Twilight as Fluttershy got up. "I'm sorry, I just heard you shouting, so I looked around for you, and I didn't see him." she explained "Yeah, yeah, whatever. What's up, Twi? Who's this?" "I'm Dark Horn. I just got here from Canterlot." "Really? Why'd you come here?" "Same reason I first came here." Twilight explained. "To make friends? Wow, you Canterlot ponies don't make very many friends up there, do you?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Most ponies do, but when you're in Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, you don't have much time for them." Dark Horn answered. "So, what? Do you need to write weekly reports about friendship to Princess Celestia too?" Twilight asked. "I don't think so." he said, enjoying the feeling of the dirt soothing his itchy flanks. "Well, I'd say you don't have anywhere to stay, so you can stay at the Library Treehouse with me." "Thanks, do you have a bath?" "Of course!" "Can I use it?" "Yeah." "Thanks!" he said running off towards his new home. --- Filling the bath with water, he jumped in and let himself soak. Instantly, his flanks became completely numb and he sighed at the relief. Before long, he began to feel himself dozing off, so he hopped out, dried himself off and almost leapt into the bed Twilight had set out for him while he was in the bath, and instantly fell asleep.