A Wish on a Star

by SmileandSoar

Same-Old, Same-Old

Just another normal day in Ponyville. It was a bright winter morning, and the sun reflected off a fresh layer of snow in just the right way that the air itself seemed to be sparkling. All the woodland critters were away or hibernating, save the few that lived with Fluttershy, so it was a quiet morning. A few ponies were already out, starting their daily chores and errands, wanting to be done early or first in line when the shops opened, but most were still sleeping, enjoying the chance to snooze a little longer. It was the day after Hearth's Warming, no one would frown upon being a little slow-moving. But a day to relax didn't mean it needed to be spent relaxing. Twilight Sparkle was doing the opposite of relaxing, actually. She was frantically looking around the library, searching for a reference guide. Twilight had been assigned another project from Princess Celestia, requiring her to gather several rare herbs that grew in locations just outside of Ponyville, and she needed the guide to know exactly what she was looking for.

Running around, she wasn't paying much attention to where she was actually going, and smacked head first into a bookcase, and fell to the ground as books toppled onto her. When the room stopped spinning, Twilight managed to make out a very irritated baby dragon standing over her, short arms crossed over his chest.

"Uhhhh... Good morning, Spike." Twilight said, trying not to let her embarrassment show.

"Well, it was a good morning until somepony went and woke me up early..." Spike let the sentence trail off. Twilight blushed a little as she apologized. Spike had been working extra hard all week, so Twilight had given him this day to rest up, and she felt bad about disturbing his sleep. But slowly, Spike's expression softened as he let out a sigh; by this point, he was used to being disturbed by Twilight's research. "So what are you studying today?" Spike asked, curious what Twilight had been so frantic about.

"Not studying, today. I've been assigned a mission by Princess Celestia. Today I'm gathering herbs for her."

"What? A mission from the Princess? And you were gonna let me miss it?"

"Well, it was your day off, so I was going to let you sleep."

"I can't take a day off when there's something that important to do."

"Well, I can't argue with that. All right, I found the book, so let's go."

Spike took a little jump to get on Twilight's back, and the two went outside into the snow. It came all the way to the top of her boots, so her hooves quickly grew cold, and her movement was quite slow. She probably could have moved faster without a baby dragon on her back, but Spike would move even slower than she was moving now if he had to walk in this. Twilight eventually trotted into town and took a look. Most of the shop stands that were going to open today were open already, and various ponies were trotting through the snow, except for one who was trotting OVER the snow. Pinkie Pie walked along, not even leaving a hoof print in the blanket.

"Good morning, Twilight! Isn't this snow just Sparklerific? Just look at how beautifully it glows! I couldn't bear to ruin its smooth, sleek shine." Not too long ago, this would have seemed impossible, or at the very least unusual to Twilight, but now it was just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. Twilight said her good mornings, got a little more dose of Pinkie, and then continued on her way, leaving Pinkie to hop around pondering the occasion for her next party.

As Twilight got farther away from the center of town, the snow got thinner. The Cloudsdale Weather Committee had scheduled for the snow to be heaviest in Ponyville, to help set the mood for this day of relaxation. After a little more walking, Twilight and Spike passed through the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. The two kind of expected the Apple Family would be indoors, considering it was winter, but Applejack and Big Mac were out in the fields, working away. So Twilight trotted over to say hello.

"Mornin', Twi!" Applejack said in a cheery voice as she stepped out of her snowplow to come greet her friend.

"Good morning Applejack," Twilight responded with equal cheer. Spike took a look around and, not being too sure, asked what they were doing.

"Ah, well, see we'all found a special kind of apple that might be able to grow even in winter, so we reckoned it was worth a shot to try."

"Eeyup," Big Mac agreed.

"So here we are, a'clearin the snow to try and grow. We even got ol' Rainbow Dash helpin out." At first, Twilight hadn't noticed, but every now and again, a streak of rainbow could be seen, busting a few clouds to make the sun shine in just bright enough to aid in melting snow. The next time the rainbow stopped, Twilight could see Rainbow Dash standing on a cloud.

"S'up, Twilight?" She yelled down, along with waving her hoof. Twilight responded with her own wave and "Hey, Rainbow Dash!" Then all three ponies went back to their tasks.

"It's so cool that they can grow apples, even in this kind of weather!" Spike said. He started talking about how that could help the amount of food available in Ponyville during these harder seasons. Twilight nodded in agreement, but she also had a question in the back of her mind she wanted answered.

"Do you ever feel it's all the same?" She asked Spike.

Huh? Wudduya mean?"

"Well, it just feels like every day has been so similar lately, doing the same thing each day. Rainbow Dash is always on weather patrol. And with how many rows Applejack and Big Mac had cleared, they couldn't have just started today."

"I guess, but they seem like they're having fun with it. Are you trying to say you're bored of your studies?"

" Not really... bored, but things have just been kind of quiet lately. I haven't really learned anything about friendship in a few weeks. Just same old, same old."

"Well, it has been kind of quiet," Spike responded, "but they're our friends, so it's worth just being around them."

Twilight thought on that. Spike was probably right, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she was getting a little too relaxed, and being unprepared for a disaster was never a good thing. By this point, they had reached the "border" and were outside the boundaries of Ponyville. The Cloudsdale weather ponies had no jurisdiction here; the weather was left to nature. There was no snow, just grass, but the grass was a dull green and mostly dead. Since it was easier to travel now, Spike got off of Twilight and started walking alongside her. According to the field guide, which she had brought along in her saddlebag, this place was called Nevergreen Fields and, like the name suggested, was infamous for its infertility. It was a place of despair, and not somewhere most ponies ever visited. Twilight wouldn't have been here herself, except for the fact that this almost barren wasteland did support one thing. The rare Morseon plant, one of the two herbs required for the Celestia's mission. Twilight didn't know too much about plants, but according to the field guide the Morseon plant was root-like and could only be found under ground. Of course, Twilight was well prepared, and had already looked up a spell to help locate the herb. Even so, it wasn't a rare plant for no reason, and it took Twilight most of the day for her spell to find a root on its radar. As the sky turned a crimson shade of orange, Spike helped Twilight dig up the plant. It was a thick, brown root, and matched the description from the field guide perfectly. Of course, then Twilight realized that she had just spent the entire day out here on this pretty boring mission, and had only found one of the two herbs. Twilight sighed. Hopefully, the Princess wouldn't be too upset about her mission taking an extra day to complete. As the last light faded from the sky, Twilight's eye was caught by an object flying through it.

"Twilight, a shooting star! Make a wish!" Spike exclaimed.

"Oh Spike, you know that's just an old mare's tale." But all the same, Twilight looked up at the star and thought to herself I wish tomorrow would be a little more interesting. When the star had passed, Spike asked Twilight what she had wished for.

"You know the tale, Spike. The wish won't come true if you tell anypony."

"So you do believe in it!" Spike yelled. If Twilight wasn't going to share her wish, she obviously had some belief in the tale.

"Well, sometimes it's fun to play along," she said. And with that, the two friends began to walk home as Princess Luna filled the night sky with a dazzling display of stars and a beautiful, bright full moon.

Author's Note:

So, here's my first Fimfic. My brothers been getting on me to get this published, cause he's curious who's is gonna have more views, and I finished writing it this morning, so I'm ready to roll in the typing. As quickly as a lazy person can roll :P Unfortunately, this story seems to feel like an actual novel to me at some points. It's kinda long-winded and detailed, but I guess that's just my style. Anyway, I'm 18, not really shooting to become an author, I just enjoy writing, and figured I'd try it out in this fandom (still kinda new, just became a Brony right after Christmas 2012). So here goes something.

P.S. I'm currently having a friend draw me a cover image, so that'll be up when she's done.