An Unlikely Bond

by SketchyRed

Chapter 1

It was the middle of October. The brittle leaves started to fall almost endlessly, colored with reds, oranges, and yellows. The sky was bright, yet still kind of cloudy and Ponyville was bustling with activity on this day. Well, all except one pony.

A red hoof poked out from under an insulated comforter and slowly pushed them off to reveal the strangest looking pony ever. This is Red Sketch. His coat is a dull red with a dirty blonde mane and tail, and his cutie mark is a white circle with a red scribble. As his name implies, he's an artist. He even has his own underachieving art store! But that still doesn't hide the fact that he is an alicorn. Yes, you heard me; alicorn. And if- somehow -you don't know what that is, it means a pony who has both pegasus wings and a unicorn horn (as well as earth pony strength). Alicorns are almost always thought of to be some sort of royalty- which in fact, the only ones in Equestria are, and are all female. Except for Red Sketch, that is.

Getting back into the story... He slowly walked down the wooden stairs to the kitchen. He sat on a chair by some sort of island-like thing that jutted out of the floor that somepony could put things on- like a table. The smell of pancakes filled the medium-sized house, resulting in the family living within it to get very hungry. This was actually a special occasion. Well, not for any specific reason or holiday. It was because of only eating hay and/or fruits and vegetables that got boring after a few days. Every Friday in this household was like this. At the stove was a light lavender unicorn mare with a medium cut mane and tail. They themselves were brown, but with some naturally occurring purple two-toned with them. This was his mother, whose name was Lavender Bake. Her cutie mark was a quill drawing a cake's outline; her special talent was making cake blueprints and cake ideas. She even baked from time to time. She was, as you probably guessed, cooking the succulent pancakes. Why else would she be standing in front of the oven looking at cooking batter?

Feeling as cloudy minded as he did, the red alicorn tried to cook up some conversation to wake his brain up. He opened his lips to say his usual "Morning." greeting, but he just couldn't process that word through his brain. He kept on trying until his mother said,

"Good morning Red. I see you're finally awake." and so he replied with "Yeah...", a feeble attempt at speaking.

"The pancakes are almost ready. Want some?" Said Lavender, trying to be upbeat.

"First off, yes. Secondly, how'd you get so much pancake mix?" said and asked Red groggily. She looked at him while flopping the fluffy brown disks onto five plates.

The mare spoke a response.

"I was giving Pinkie Pie- you know, Pinkie -some of my cake designs, as she is my best client. She said that she had a surplus of pancake mix that she didn't really need, so I took some off of her hooves. I figured it would make you ponies happy, at least. Also, she says hi." This made Red Sketch blush a dark red. Slowly, he lifted his head up off of the counter, his mind slowly waking up. His wings, still stiff from waking up, pained him a little. This was a problem for most pegasi, as it was common for their wings to stiffen up during sleep, and being an alicorn didn't change that fact. He tried to put them down due to the soreness of it all, and they did eventually. But as soon as he had gotten them down a plate plopped in front of his face. He could smell the sweet smell of they sticky syrup on the light brown pancake. He used his magic to grab a fork and stabbed into the one side, lifting it up; he forgot to cut it up when he stabbed it, so he did that also.

Lavender called the rest of the family into the kitchen for breakfast. Usually they'd be in the living room doing random things. Red's dad would read the newspaper, his brother would play with a toy farm pony, and his sister would move blocks around with her magic. His brother came in first, slamming into the table as he did. His name is Tyler, and he is a blue-scaled dragon. While he is a dragon, he is still considered part of the family. And, comparing him to Spike, he's slightly taller and skinnier, being pretty athletic. He sat in a chair after saying "Thanks mom!", rocking it slightly, then slowly putting a fork in his already cut up pancake. It oozed syrup. Then came in a brown and red tinted earth pony stallion, who was their father (and Lavender's husband). His name was Wheelhoof, and he made and repaired carts. His cutie mark was a wooden wheel. He was mostly grumpy, but was usually in a good mood at home. Working all of those hours can take a toll on you if you barely get sleep. He sat down and said "Good morning." to all of us in the room, and sat down as well. He, as expected, also bit into a stack of 'cakes.

As Red Sketch was in the middle of his breakfast, a magenta flash of light made him jump out of his chair in surprise... only to find that it was his sister teleporting into the room and onto the counter-top. She is light pink with a copper colored mane and tail. She is a unicorn who likes magic, but fails, even though she is slightly better at it than most fillies her age. (Yes, she and Tyler are both younger than Red and go to the schoolhouse in Ponyville, if you're wondering). Immediately, Red grabbed her and put her on another chair. She looked at him grumpily. "Sorry bro..." Said the filly.

"It's okay, Nariann." replied the colt.

(Now, I know you're wondering how he is an alicorn, so I'll explain. His grandmother is a pegasus who married a unicorn. Together, they had Lavender Bake, a unicorn. She had a baby with an earth pony, and, with some sort of recessive genetics, had an alicorn and a unicorn. [Pony genetics is complicated!])

After an hour, he finished his breakfast, got up out of his seat, and pushed it in with his magic. He decided to go out and walk around Ponyville before he opened his store. Looking at the staircase, he started to trot up to get his scarf and bags. In his room, he then looked around to see a light blue scarf and brown saddlebags. It was still a cold day, so the scarf would help. The bags were for concealing his wings (and, of course, keeping extra art supplies in). He didn't want anypony to find out that he was an alicorn, because it could cause an uproar in the town.

He used his magic to grab and tie the scarf around his crimson neck and put the bags on his back to conceal those confounded wings. He turned and trotted back down the wooden stairs, trying to not get frustrated by walking so much. But alas, he got lazy and flew down. So after he landed on his hooves with a thud, he opened the door and trotted out. He immediately felt the cold chill of the October air (even if it wasn't much), and turned around, shutting the door behind him. As he moved forward, a green and purple figure slammed into him at a high speed and made him fall over.