Chapter 1- Sour Apple
Everyone knows the story of the elements of harmony, with its honest tendencies, its loyal generosity, its sheer kindness, and of course its magical laughter. It is said that these elements, these friends, can together defeat any enemy that Equestria faces. But apart they fall along with the kingdom, and then very quickly the elements that we once knew are gone; never to return. This being said they have never managed to be split before without quickly coming back together as one. Some of the greatest villains have tried and failed to split them apart. However, this is not to say that it cannot be done... as everypony was about to find out.
We start with the least expected of ponies to be involved in a story about friendship. Sour Apple was sour by name and sour by nature. He was a fashion pony focused primarily on keeping his mane tidy and his hooves clean but nothing else. You’d think that somepony as handsome as him would have plenty of friends or followers but he had none and would actually accept nopony to be his friends as it was. He spent all his time reading magazines and the hurtful gossip that comes with them. Other ponies would not even try to become friends because the simple fact is that other ponies that lived in the Filly Isles found him rude, ungrateful, and selfish (among other things). His mother, Apple Brown Betty, was struggling to understand or be proud of her son for what he had done with his life. Sour hadn’t bothered to even help on the family orchard since he was a young colt and first got his cutie mark. He felt that because he knew what his talent was, that he should focus on that and nothing else. Apple Brown Betty was very upset with her youngest son, so upset that she had come up with a very upsetting solution to the problem.
“Forget it Mother, I’m not going,” Sour shouted through his bedroom door.
“Sour, you have to go. I’ve already booked your train tickets and I know for a fact that Auntie Smith has set up a room for you at Apple Acres already,” Brown Betty pleadingly told her son.
“I’m still not going. I hate dirty, filthy orchards with dirty, filthy ponies and their dirty, filthy manners,” Sour complained. “There will be no-pony there that has the sophistication to be around such a pony as me.”
“That doesn’t matter, you’re not there to be sophisticated, you’re going there to learn to make friends and be grateful for all you have,” Brown Betty told her son as she walked into his room. “Why, your cousin AppleJack is apparently a fine mare and her friends are too. Maybe you can be friends with them.”
“Yes I know. The precious Elements of Harmony. No-pony ever fails in this family to exclaim how brilliant they are.”
Looking down at her son’s pouting face, Brown Betty sighed. She really hoped that this trip would help Sour become a bit of a happier stallion and one that ponies would make friends with. She knew that her Auntie Smith could deal with anypony because she herself recalled going to her when she was a young filly and was shy and socially awkward. Now she thought about it if it wasn’t for her Auntie Smith she probably would have never met her husband, Crumble, and she would have never had had the happy life she did now. She remembered that it was hard to change, and would be hard for Sour as well, but she knew that Auntie Smith would be up to the challenge. After all she did raise three other foals by herself, so she could surely handle another one like Sour.
“ The train leaves in an hour. Be on it or your Father will put you on it.” She left the ticket on Sour’s bed and trotted out of the room.
The train station was extremely busy and noisy when Sour got there. After about 5 minutes of thought he had decided to do as his mother said, mostly because his Father was extremely strong and he did not want to get onto the wrong side of that fight, but also because he really did care for his mother and was upset that she was getting so upset about it. Sour sighed as he looked at all the untidy manes and horrifying clothes of the ponies chatting around him. He shook his head in disbelief; it looked like these ponies had never looked in a mirror before in their lives. Did no-pony care about what they looked like at all?
Just as he thought that, he noticed a very nervous young mare hiding in a corner. ‘Finally,’ he thought, ‘somepony who actually has some fashion sense. She's beautiful.’ This mare was an extremely pretty one although she herself did not seem to notice it. Long locks of wavy blue and white hair fell in a sea of calm around her neck. Her eyes were a dreamy light blue while her body was coloured in a light purple angelic way. She could perhaps be stated as looking as if she could not even be real, but a dream. She didn’t seem to fit in with the lower class ponies around her, although alicorns never did seem to fit into the lower society of Equestria.
A train came chugging into the station and the young mare slinked into the cantering crowd and disappeared out of Sour’s sight. Sour snapped back into reality just in time to get onto the train going to Ponyville.