I was walking home from school, when I made a huge mistake. I got on the wrong bus. At first I just thought it was no big deal, since they all end up at the same station anyway, and from there I would be able to get home. But then I realised my mistake. Suddenly, the bus started going unbelievably fast.
“Help!!!” I started screaming. But everyone was calm, as if this was normal. A few people looked at me like I was crazy. Suddenly a huge pink, blue, and white swirl formed in front of the bus.
“Stop!!!” I yelled. “The bus is going to crash!!!”. But the bus driver just continued driving. A few more people looked at me like I was crazy. I wondered if this was going to be the end of my life. All because I got on the wrong bus? Suddenly my whole life flashed before my eyes. I had so much longer to live, so many more things to fulfil...Then the swirl in front of the bus started to shine. For a second I thought I passed out as everything went dark. Suddenly there was a big crash, and I thought that would be the end, but I was just fine. There was not a single scratch on my body. I looked around. My eyes widened. Around me, sitting in the bus, where a bunch of colorful horses.
“W-what's going on?!?!” I said, panicking. This wasn't normal! A yellow horse with orange hair looked at me, frowning.
“What do you mean?” she said, looking me up and down. Then her eyes widened. She was staring at my butt. “W-what?” I asked, realising what she was staring at.
“You've never been on this bus before have you…” she said.
“No-how did you know?!” I said, panicking too much to be amazed.
“You're panicking, and you have no cutie mark.”
“What's a-” I was going to as what a ‘cutie mark’ was but she cut me off.
“Well...this bus only comes every month, so you will have to stay here for a while.”she said.
“W-what?!?” I felt my eyes starting to water. “Th-this can't be happening!!!” I screamed, my tears flowing like a waterfall.
“Everypony get off the bus!” said the bus driver. The yellow horse got up from her seat, came over to me, and patted my shoulder.
“It's going to be okay,” she said. “You can stay at my house for a week!” I stopped crying, and tried to look up to her, but my eyes were blurry with tears. She smiled at me. “Now, lets get off the bus.” she walked off and I followed her. I fell on my hands.
“Ow…” I said, but then I realised that it hadn't actually hurt.
“Oh…” the yellow horse walked back towards me. “You're a pony now too…” she winced as she told me.
“W-what?!” I stared at my hands. Or well...my hooves now...they were pure white.
“Just follow my lead,” said the yellow horse. “Oh yes, you haven't introduced yourself yet.” She looked at me expectantly.
“O-oh!” I staggered. “M-my name is Kotori!”
“That's a nice name,” said the yellow horse. “My name is Carrot Top.”
“Oh, that explains why you have these carrots on your...uh…”
“Flank,” said Carrot Top.
“Exactly! I guess horses have their own language…”
“Call us ponies. The princess doesn't like being called a horse.”
“Oh s-sorry!” I stuttered.
“Don't worry about it it's just a word of advice.”
“Thanks…”
“Everypony off the bus!” the bus driver irritatedly repeated.
“We should get going too,” said Carrot Top.
“C-coming!” I said and we cantered off the bus. When I got off the bus, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was like Disneyland, just everyone was a pony. I was going to say something, but it was stuck in my throat.
"Now, I think I should introduce you to the princess. Follow me."
"Wow..." I said in awe. We had reached the castle, and by this point I had completely forgotten about the fact that this was in a totally different world and that I should have been panicking.
"If you find this amazing, wait until you get inside." said Carrot Top. We walked up the the door, where we met a pair of guards.
"Hello sires, I would like to speak to Princess Celestia." she said, in such a polite voice, that it didn't sound like her at all. One of them grunted as they opened the doors with their magic.
"Wow!" I said. "Unicorns can do that?"
"Yup!" said Carrot Top. "If you're interested in magic, I bet Twilight would be pleased to help you with that."
"What do you mean help me? I'm not a-" that's when I realised I was a unicorn. Well, I thought.
I guess being a talking horse isn't the worst thing in the world.
When we walked inside, it was a huge sparkly palace. Carrot Top walked up the stairs like they were any normal stairs. "Wait aren't you at least going to wipe your hooves?" I called after her. The only response she gave me was a glare. I understand why though. When I called after her, there was a really loud echo. But suddenly we heard something even louder.
"NO! I WANT PHILOMENA!" we heard someone scream from up stairs. Carrot Top and I shared a worried look, then we galloped up the stairs together. Right when we reached the top of the stairs, we bumped into a crying white pony with a flowing green, blue, and pink mane, who was galloping down the stairs.
"Wow!" I said. "Are you ok?!" I called after her, but she had already gone out of sight.
"Who was that?" I asked Carrot Top.
"I'm afraid to say..." started Carrot Top when suddenly a blue pony with 2 different shades of blue in her flowing mane which matched the white pony's bumped into us.
"Sorry!" she said and cantered past us, but when she saw me she suddenly stopped.
"Who have you brought to the castle Carrot Top?" she asked.
"Oh..." said Carrot Top."She got on the wrong bus."
"Oh I see."
"Yes..."
"So what were you planning to do with her?"
"Well, I was going to introduce her to Princess Celestia but I see now is not the time..."
"Oh!" She said. "I'm very sorry about that..."
"Don't worry. We'll be fine."
"So," said Carrot Top attracting both of our attention. "What"s wrong with Princess Celestia?"
"Celestia..." Luna started, but she was interrupted by a furious scream. Luna just sighed.
"Aren't we going to do something about that?" I asked, slightly panicking. "Something is obviously wrong!"
"Well duh!" said Carrot Top. "How forgetful are you? That's Princess Celestia."
"Yes..." said Luna. "My sister is having a little tantrum...she's upset because her pet phoenix Philomena died..." Luna sighed again. "I'm very sorry to meet you like this-" then she suddenly stopped, realising that she had never asked for my name.
"Kotori." I finished.
"Oh!" said Luna. "What a nice name! It sounds...familiar...oh, never mind."
"Ok...and thank you," I said, remembering my manners.
"Well," said Luna, "since you are here, could you perhaps help my with my sister?"
"Well we were in a bit of a-" started Carrot Top.
"Of course!" I replied before Carrot Top could finish. I kinda wanted to see what the Princess looked like when she was mad.
"Thank you so much!" exclaimed Luna. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Carrot Top glaring at me.
"Well sorry!" I whispered to her. "But she's royalty right? And we can't say no to royalty!" I grinned.
"Let's get going then!" said Luna, smiling and already prancing down the stairs.
"C'mon," I said to Carrot Top, as I too, pranced down the stairs. Carrot Top groaned, but she still followed us.
When we reached the kitchen, it was chaos. There were broken plates and bowls on the floor, food all over the place, 3 of the cupboards were broken, and the chef was standing in the corner, looking terrified. But the most terrifying thing, Was the pony in the middle. Her mane was no longer green, blue, and pink, but instead it was just a mane made of flaming fire. Because her mane was flaming fire, you would probably think she was really mad. But it was the exact opposite, she was crying, crying, and crying, until she made a waterfall.
"Sister!" I heard Luna shout as she ran towards the pony. Carrot Top was standing beside me, looking horrified.
"A-are you ok?" was all that came out of my mouth, before I realised how dumb that sounded. Of course she wasn't!
"Sister, it's ok! Everything will be fine sister..." Luna tried to calm down her sister - I forgot her name - but it didn't seem to be working. Suddenly, I had an idea. I walked up to Luna's sister.
"Hello your majesty," I said as I bowed. "What's wrong? You can tell me if you want. Of course you don't have to though. But I'm always here if you want me. You know, today I took the wrong bus, and ended up here. My parents are probably worried sick about me..." Celestia looked up, and for the first time i saw her face, and looked into her eyes. Then, with that, we formed an understanding. I saw everything she was worried about, why, how she grew up, and it was like we had known each other for ever. Then, I just smiled, Celestia stopped crying, and I walked off.
The last thing I saw of the 2 sisters was Luna talking to Celestia about what happened. Then I heard hooves cantering after me, so I was pretty sure that it was Carrot Top.
"Wait up Kotori! What did you just do? You just looked at Princess Celestia and walked away! Don't you know how rude that is? The weirdest thing is that she actually stopped crying when you-" But Carrot Top was stopped by another pair of hooves galloping towards us. I turned around, to see Princess Luna and Princess Celestia - I think that's what Carrot Top just said - right behind Carrot Top.
"Your majesties," I bowed. Carrot Top spun around to see them, then quickly did the same.
"What brings you here again?" Carrot Top said, trying to hide the disgust in her voice, but failing. Luna looked a bit shocked at her tone, but Celestia just ignored her.
"I'm sorry I never introduced myself. I'm Celestia, though you probably already know that by now."
I just smiled.
"Well Tia, I think you're going to be very good friends with Kotori." said Luna.
"Yes, I think so too, and I also think I need to have a break from my royal duties, and go on a vacation! Would you girls like to come?"
"Absolutely!" I said.
"Finally!" said Luna.
"Um...sure...?" said Carrot Top.
"Then it's settled! A girls beach day!"
We all cheered except for Carrot Top, even though I didn't really understand what was going on, I was happy. I had wanted to have a vacation on a beach for a while now, and now I finally got to have it, along with royalty!
"Are you even looking at any of the clothes?" asked Carrot Top. We were out shopping for beach clothes. It was true, I was sorta excited and zipping through the clothing racks.
"Of course I am!" I answered, although I wasn't sure myself if I was. "Aren't you going to get anything?" I asked Carrot Top.
"Ponies don't normally wear clothes..." she said blushing. I was really excited about going to the beach. Princess Celestia even said she would get us each specially made bathing suits! I can't wait! I thought. It was just going to be a nice, calming, vacation. I was so worried about turning into a horse, yet I'm going on vacation! I thought to myself and giggled.
"What's so funny?" I heard Carrot Top ask.
"Oh nothing, just thinking about how nice it will be to go on vacation and get away from all this stress." Thats when I realised, actually...I never was stressed! I was always facing fun adventures here! Well I guess that's good thing, I smiled.
"Maybe we should get back home, we've been here for an hour, Kotori." said Carrot Top.
"Yeah...maybe we should." I said. I walked over to the counter, and dumped all the clothes there. Carrot Top winced. "You ok Carrots?"- that's her new nickname - I asked her.
"Yes, I'm fine...it's just that..."
"that...?"
"Well if you're getting all of that it'll be expensive..."
"Oh! Well I have 100 dollars, that should be enough right?"
"Um...remember, you're in Equestria?"
"Yeah, what abou-oh." Right, I thought. In a pony world, they have pony money. I face palmed - or well hooved - myself.
"Er...do you have any currency exchanging machines?" I asked.
"Do we have what? said Carrot Top.
"Um...lemme put back some of the clothes..." I said as i randomly took half the pile of clothes and put it in the 'Return Box'. "There!" I said.
"Um...ok..." said Carrot Top as she pulled a bunch of gold coins out of her bag.
"Wow!" I said. "Are those real gold?!" I ran over to the counter. The shop lady - or shop pony, I guess - looked at me like I was crazy.
"Of course!" she said. "Have you never seen a bit before?"
"A bit?"
"Yes. A bit."
"Like...a bit?"
"Yes!"
"..."
I thought about it for a moment. A bit as in a little bit...or...oh! they must call their money bits! oh... I laughed. The shop pony looked still looked at me like was crazy.
"Er...lets get going Kotori. We're done here." said Carrot Top.
"Kay kay!" I said. She took the bag, and walked out of the shop, her head hanging down, like she was a guilty criminal. I could tell, I had upset her.
"Kotori! Do you know how embarrassing that was?!" Carrot Top complained. To be honest, I didn't. I didn't even know what she was talking about!
"I'm sorry!" I said anyway. She glared at me.
"You don't even know what I'm talking about so you..." she said, in an icy voice that sent a chill down my spine.
"How did you-"
"I can read you like a book." she said. Seriously? I thought. She's mad at me because I didn't know what bits were? Well she didn't know what a currency exchange machine was!
"Just try to consider my feelings ok?" said Carrot Top.
"Look if you find me that embarrassing I'll just go live with someone else!"
"With who? You don't know anypony! Nopony will take you in! you'll end up living on the streets!"
"I'll find someone! I know I will! Because most people have kinder hearts then you!"
"It's ponies!"
"Now you’re correcting my grammar?! I don't even want to live with you any more!"
"Fine then! Leave!"
So I stormed out of the house, never wanting to see Carrot Top again.
"Pfft. She thinks I can't find someone to live with? That no one cares for me? Well I'll prove her wrong," I said as I walked down the street. It was sunset, and the streets were deserted. Then, out of the corner or my eye, I saw a library. I grinned. I was tired of walking, I wanted a teleportation spell, assuming there was a book on magic in there. As I walked towards the library, I wondered what sort of librarian I would encounter. I trotted to the door, then knocked.
"Spike, get the door!" I heard someone say. "Yes Twilight..." I heard someone, - supposedly Spike - say. When the door opened, I expected it to be a pony. Well that's pretty obvious I guess. But when the door opened, instead of a pony, it was a dragon who opened the door! It was a small, purple, dragon. Instead of being scared, I was just amazed.
"Is that - are you- a dragon?" I asked, a hint of excitement in my voice.
"Yes, I am a dragon." said Spike.
"Just a baby one!" I heard a female voice. Then I saw a purple unicorn teleport to the doorway. "Oh, hello, my name is Twilight." she said.
“Oh, my name is Kotori.” I said.
“What a nice name!” said Twilight. “Come in!” she walked back in. When I saw the library, it looked more like a house!
“Is this the public library?” I asked Twilight.
“Oh no, this is my house! But if you're looking for a book I'd be happy to let you borrow one!” she said.
“Well, I actually was looking for a book on magic, or if possible just teleportation.” I said.
“Oh!” said Twilight looking really happy. "If it's magic you want to study, you don't need a book, you can always come to me!" said Twilight.
"Oh!" I said. "Well then just a small teleportation spell?"
“Of course!" said Twilight. "Just imagine your destination and in your head, and imagine yourself teleporting there. You have to keep that image in your mind for a while, and make sure it's really clear before you teleport!"
“Oh!” I said. “Thanks Twilight!” So I teleported myself to Celestia's castle.
I knocked on the door. In 3 seconds flat, the doors opened, a light blue magic swirl around the handle. "Hello Sirs," I said, remembering what Carrot Top said. "I would like to speak to Princess Celestia." I said imitating Carrot Top's voice. They nodded, and I walked inside.
"Can I really stay here?!" I squealed.
"Of course!" said Princess Celestia. "You can have the guest bedroom!"
"Thanks so much!" I said, grinning liek a maniac.
"Where is Carrot Top?" asked Princess Celestia, causing both of us to stop laughing.
"Hey, yeah, she didn't come with you." said Luna, looking behind me just to make sure.
"That's the whole point..." I said, my voice getting colder. "She was too embarrassed to have me around...so I told her I would go live with someone else...and she said that no one cared for me and that I'd end up living in the streets..."
"Oh!" said Luna. "That's not like Carrot Top..." Princess Celestia frowned.
"Oh yes," said Princess Celestia, "Don't call me Princess Celestia any more since you'll be around me all the time, call me-"
"Tia!" Luna finished.
"Yes Lulu?" said Celestia.
"Nothing, I was just saying that Kotori could call you Tia." said Luna.
"Nice, Tia and Lulu." I said smiling.
"We have to think up a nickname for you too!" said Luna.
"That would be nice!" I said. "Hm...how about...Birdy?" I said laughing. "I've always been fascinated by birds."
"Ok Birdy!" Celestia said, laughing too. Then we all laughed together.
"I can't wait to go to the beach tomorrow," said Luna.
"Oh!" I said. "My stuff! they're still all at Carrot Top's place! Sorry! I'll be back!" I said as I teleported myself to my former room.
When I got there, I expected to be alone, and have enough time to pack and leave without having to encounter Carrot Top. But when I got there, it was the complete opposite. Carrot Top, was right there, on the bed, hugging my stuff. It was such a shock, I staggered back and hit the wall, which was a dumb thing to do, because Carrot Top heard it. She sat up, and her eyes widened when she saw me.
"Kotori?" she said. "Is that you? Or is this another dream?" That surprised me. She's been dreaming about me? I thought.
"I'm just here to pack my stuff, and then I'll be out of your way." I tried to say in my iciest voice.
"I-Kotori I'm sorry..."
"For what."
"For...for..."
"You don't even know what you're sorry for."
"I-"
"What ever, just let me pack and leave."
"Whose house are you staying at?" Carrot Top couldn't help being curious.
"Princess Celestia's." I said.
"Oh-what?!"
"Just let me pack!"
"Okay!"
I was getting tired of this. I grabbed all my stuff, and dumped in the shopping bag from the store. "Give me back my t-shirt," I growled. Carrot Top threw me the shirt she had been hugging. I took that, and teleported without even saying bye.
Teleporting get's really tiring, especially if you're a beginner at magic like me."Welcome back Birdy!" Luna greeted me at the door.
Ugh. I fell back onto the bed. It felt so good to lie down...My mind was tired, and my body was tired. I couldn't wait for a nice time at the beach, swimming in the water...lying in the sun...
I sat up in bed, my heart pounding. Nightmares..."I hate nightmares..." I muttered. I had had a dream that Carrot Top took me to a deserted island, and left me there all alone... I got up and walked downstairs. I hadn't realized that I had fallen asleep...I wondered what time it was. Probably 3:00 or something. I stopped at a window. I had seen this window on the way to my room, but I had been too tired to notice it. It had a picture made of colored glass on it. It looked like 6 ponies Turning some sort of weird monster to stone. Then, the monster moved. Or at least it looked like it did. I thought it was just my imagination, but when it started talking I decided something was really happening.
"Who are you?" I asked the monster.
"I am Discord," it replied. Then it jumped from one window to the next. I looked back at the ponies. they were still there, as if nothing had happened. Maybe I should tell Celestia... I thought. but then I thought, no, she'd just think I'm crazy. Well I guess I could at least ask her who Discord is. I decided. So I continued walking downstairs. "Where do you think you're going?" I heard the window ask.
"I'm going downstairs, to ask Celestia who Discord is." I answered. So I did, and I just hoped, if I knew the answers, that my mind would stop playing tricks with me.
"Wait he really exists?!" I don't get why I was surprised, since talking horses existed, but a part dragon, part snake, part eagle, part lion, and a bunch of other animals that make one monster called Discord exists? I wonder if I should tell Celestia...I kept on thinking about it...and eventually I decided that I would tell Celestia. "Princess Celestia?" Celestia reacted to this, since I normally call her Celestia or Tia. "Discord, from the window, talked to me." I said.
"He did?" said Celestia. "That's a bad sign..."
"Tia, he has been doing so for a while. Remember I told you about it?" said Luna. Celestia sighed.
"Let's just go to bed, then go in vacation, and relax." I said.
"Sounds like a great idea." smiled Celestia. "Yup!" said Luna. "I'll go tell the chef to start cooking!"
"I'm starving," I said as we sat down at the dinner table.
"Sorry for the wait," said Luna. "I told the chef that we had guests, and he went crazy making a huge meal."
"Well I'll definitely eat it now!" I said laughing. Then we all laughed.
"Well let's start eating then!" said Celestia.
"I like that idea," said Luna.
"Totally," I said, as we dug in. There was so much to choose from; There was cakes, hay, radishes, grass, oats, and much more. For some reason, these looked delicious. I guess it's because now that I'm a horse, I have horse senses, and like what most horses like.
The tears kept on falling, they wouldn't stop.
"I miss her..." sobbed Carrot Top. "Why did she have to leave..." suddenly Carrot Top stopped crying. "I'll see her anyways...because tomorrow we're going to the beach!" Carrot Top was so excited, she fell off the bed, - she had been crying on Kotori's bed - she immediately said "Ow," though she didn't really care. "I can apologise at the beach..." Carrot Top quickly stuffed her bathing suit into her bag, before remembering that Princess Celestia was getting them bathing suits. "Oh..." Said Carrot Top. "Then I can go without a bag!" Exclaimed Carrot Top. So she went around the house, trotting not thinking about anything else. "And then everything will be just fine," Carrot Top smiled. It was going to be a normal nice vacation with some nice friends, and Carrot Top would make sure of that.
"That was delicious," I said when dinner was over. We had a great dinner, and there was a delicious strawberry cake for dessert. "I can't wait for tomorrow!" I said.
"Me neither!" said Luna.
"Maybe we should get some sleep, tomorrow is a big day." said Celestia.
"Maybe," I said.
"No way!" Said Luna. "I wanna party all night long!" Celestia laughed.
"We can do that tomorrow Lulu," She said.
"Kay Kay!" Said Luna. "Let's get sleepin' so tomorrow comes!" We all laughed as Luna simultaneously raised the moon. "There!" She said. "Good night!" And we all went to our own bedrooms. I couldn't wait for tomorrow. It was going to be awesome.
I woke up, so exited. Today was beach day! I couldn't wait. I sprang out of bed, and quickly ran down stairs.
“Good morning!” I said while running over to Luna and Celestia.
“Morning Birdy!” Both Luna and Celestia said at the same time.
“So we all woke up early, excited about beach day huh?” Asked Celestia, happy that we were all looking forward to vacation.
“Oh!” I said, “What time is it?”
“It's 7:23,” said Celestia.
“Oh!” I said once again, which caused all of us to laugh.
“So, how are we getting to the beach, what time, and where is the beach?” I asked.
“You'll see!” Said Celestia. “But I'll tell you this, we have to be out of the castle by 9:00.”
“I can't wait!” I said.
“Me neither!” said Luna.
“I wonder if Carrot Top is up?” said Celestia. At that, I reacted. My whole body stiffened. Even Luna noticed.
“Maybe...not like I really care…” I mumbled. Luna looked at Celestia as if to say 'don't talk about Carrot Top around her, you know how touchy she is on that subject!' But I understood what she was trying to say more than Celestia so I just said, “It's fine, really. Don't worry about it.” Celestia looked at me with a worried face. “Let's get packing!” I said, trying to cheer the mood up again.
“Yup!” Agreed Luna, understanding my objective. Celestia tried to play along as well.
“Yup!” She said. I smiled as we all pranced upstairs.
“Done!” I said happily as I closed the bag. I pranced downstairs with it, only to encounter Discord again. “Ugh,” I said. “What do you want? I’m a bit busy in case you haven’t noticed.” Discord looked at me with an amused face.
“Where are you going?” he asked. I glared at him.
“On vacation.” I answered.
"Where?" he questioned.
"That's none of you business." I said as I cantered downstairs, holding my head high.
“Breakfast is ready!” called the chef from the kitchen. He came out with a bunch of trays.
“Wow!” I exclaimed. “You can levitate that many stuff in one go?” I asked Celestia.
“Absolutely!” she said.
“Cool! You guys totally gotta teach me how to use my magic some day!”
“That would be awesome!” said Luna. The breakfast was put onto the table. sausages, waffles, butter, syrup, cheese...I couldn’t wait.
“Let’s start eating!” I said, licking my lips. Luna grinned.
“Thought you would like breakfast,” she said as we dug in.
“I wonder what sort of bathing suits Princess Celestia got us…” Carrot Top frowned. Something was wrong with that sentence…”Oh!” Carrot Top was surprised when she realised her mistake. “us...I mean me.” Carrot Top corrected herself. She sighed. It didn’t feel the same when you corrected yourself and when you corrected somepony else...Oh well, she thought. Soon we will all be together on a lovely beach having a lovely vacation with a lovely golden sun...Carrot Top couldn’t wait. She ran outside to catch the train to the palace. This was going to be fun.
We all happily pranced out of the palace, -if that was even possible considering the amount of luggage I was carrying- just as we bumped into Carrot Top.
“Oh, so-” I was about to say sorry, but when I saw Carrot Top I just stopped talking. My body immediately stiffened, and I think Carrot Top could tell. Don’t let her bother you, I saw Luna mouthing to me. Your right. I answered back to her with my body language. Sorry. We both smiled at each other.
“Let’s get going!” said Celestia, noticing that our short conversation was over. “Now to reveal how we are getting there...by train!” said Celestia. “Of course it’s an island so we have to take a boat too but to get to the boat we take a train.”
“Cool!” I said. “Let’s get going!” I repeated after Celestia. We all laughed. All of us, except for Carrot Top. She uneasily smiled at me. I glared at her. We walked towards the train station.
The train was a normal train, nothing fancy, but when we got to our cart, it was the exact opposite. Apparently royalty got a special car, which guests - also known as us - also got to sit in. Carrot Top sat next to me, Luna in front of me, and Celestia next to Luna. It was ok...the only thing was it looked different. Or at least that’s what I thought. But not quite. When the food came - which I didn’t expect it to since we just ate - it was like heaven. There was amazing...even better than the royal chef, which what had to believe.. It was so hard to choose from, we got one plate of everything. I was getting really spoiled in pony land. I was going to miss this place when I left...and I would have to get used to normal life once again. I laughed at the thought.
“What’s so funny?” asked Carrot Top, trying to start a conversation with me.
“Nothing,” I mumbled. I didn’t want to talk to Carrot Top...because if I did I was pretty sure I'd forget that I was supposed to be upset with her.
“Well sorry for being curious,” said Carrot Top, pretending to be interested in her surroundings, but it was obvious that she was faking it.
"It's not okay," I said, resisting the urge to snicker.
“Yes your majesty,” Carrot Top and I said in unison. Celestia sighed. It was obvious that Carrot Top and I were not calm.
“Try some of this!” Said Luna, trying to cheer me up. She handed me a croissant which was covered in chocolate as I licked my lips. I was so happy I had taken the wrong bus.
“Thanks Lulu,” I said, noticing her trying to make an effort to make me happy.
“So you all have nicknames?” Asked Carrot Top.
“Yup!” Luna answered for me. “I'm Lulu, Celestia is Tia, and Kotori is Birdy!”
“Cool!” Said Carrot Top, obviously happy that someone was talking to her, and desperately trying to keep the conversation going, as she never said 'cool'. “You made up a nickname for me too, remember Kotori?”
She tried to start a conversation with me, but I just ignored her as if she wasn't there.
“Really?” Asked Celestia, trying to keep her talking.
“Yes!” She said.
“What was it?”
“Carrots!”
Every pony laughed, every pony except for me. I was upset at Carrot Top, and I was going to stay that way.
“Oh come on, cheer up.” Whispered Luna from across the table. I sighed.
“She’s having sooo much fun isn’t she.”
“What’s wrong with having fun?”
“It’s just that...I thought she would apologise…”
“Oh come on Kotori, you have to get over that.”
I could tell that she was starting to get annoyed with my sulking, but it didn’t seem fair. She got upset at me for no reason, and now I’m the one who is upset, and everyone seemed to be on her side! What did I ever do wrong? I thought. Why is everyone on her side? Shouldn’t it be ‘Poor Kotori, Carrot Top was being mean to her’ not ‘get over it Kotori’ or ‘Poor Carrot Top wasn’t being treated nicely by Kotori’? It was her fault in the first place. She offered me a place to stay for a week, and then I got kicked out in less than 2 days! I sighed, but put a fake smile on my face. I looked at Celestia who seemed to be tired, for Carrot Top was talking on and on and on forever. I thought about school for the first time since stepping foot in Equestria. I wonder what everyone else is normally doing… How nice it must be to be a princess. I suddenly thought. Everyone does what you want them to do for you, and you can do whatever you want! I wish I were a princess…
“-and that’s about all of my life!” finished Carrot Top. Celestia smiled, happy that she could have a break from all that listening, and I realised how lucky I was to have people - I mean ponies - like her and Luna who would listen and put up with all my complaining, and still be my friends. I wished that I had had people like that it school…
“That was very nice and...detailed,” said Celestia, bringing me back from my thoughts. “Wasn’t it Lulu?”
But Luna was snoring next to her, having fallen asleep. Celestia sighed. “She didn’t get much sleep last night, I’m sorry.”
I laughed at the memory. We had all gotten up really early...but I hoped that Luna still wanted to party all night. I was really looking forward to that.
“Next stop is the Crystal Empire!” we heard the train conductor speak into the microphone. I hadn’t realized that we had already stopped.
“We’re stopping here,” said Celestia.
“Wow,” I said. “We should get eating!” I laughed.
“Yes we should!” laughed Celestia.
Carrot Top was left staring at us, wondering what would happen if she started laughing, but she didn’t risk it. We ate in silence for a few seconds, until I decided to lighten up the table.
“So,” I started. “The Crystal Empire is our destination, huh? Sounds fancy.”
“Well it is fancy, a princess is taking you on vacation!” exclaimed Carrot Top.
“Speaking about princesses…” started Luna who had apparently woke up, startling all of us. “I've been thinking about this recently, but the name Kotori sounds really familiar.”
“Yes, it does.” said Celestia.
“What is your full name?” asked Luna.
“Kotori.” I answered. "That's my name."
"Kotori," Celestia started, becoming serious, "tell me your real name." I looked down and sighed.
"Scarlet. Scarlet Sonata Sketch."
That’s when both Luna and Celestia became stiff, and I knew I shouldn't have told them my name.
“Are you two okay?” asked Carrot Top, having also noticed.
“Um...y-yes…” stammered Celestia.
“No,” Luna answered truthfully. “No, not at all okay.” She looked shocked. “I can’t believe I didn’t realise before…”
“Look, I'm sorry, okay?"
"Why did you lie to us?"
"Look, I didn't want to tell you!"
Carrot Top stared at us all, confused. "Will somepony please tell me what's going on?" I sighed.
"I will," I said. "I'll tell you all what really happened."
