//------------------------------// // Chapter 2- A New Arrival // Story: My Little Pony: The Test of Friendship // by McThriller //------------------------------// Chapter 2- A New Arrival After Flamebolt had finished his race in Griffinstone, he received some information that a pegasus was able to perform the legendary Sonic Rainboom. Wanting to see if the legend was true, he was told to look in Ponyville and after a few hours of flying, the town came into view. Bright streaks of sunlight beamed down upon the smiling ponies of the quaint little town. Unlike Griffinstone, everypony there was acquainted with one another and would always lend a helping hoof to those in need. This town was also known for being the home of 6 brave ponies who have overcome many challenges and obstacles. They had defeated countless enemies that threatened Equestria and all that inhabited the world. They have brought peace and harmony to the land many times and have helped created many bonds of friendship to many creatures that would eventually last life times. Flamebolt zoomed to the town in a blur of red and orange fire, a trail of bright fire dust with blue electrical sparks trailing just behind. He landed in front of the path that led into the town, causing a few heads from the locals to turn his way. Murmurs could be heard from some of the townsfolk, questioning who this new visitor was. "So..." he trotted through the town casually, looking around at the scenery. "This is Ponyville" he took a deep breath and exhaled. "A lot better than the other place I was just at." He said with a low chuckle. In the distance there was the sound of humming followed by noises of hopping further into town. Suddenly there was a gasp of joy and a blob of pink was mere inches from Flamebolt's face, staring with giant bright blue eyes. "You're new aren't you?! I just saw you happen to walk into town and I knew I hadn't seen you before, but I thought that was impossible because I know everypony here in Ponyville and if I haven't seen you before that means you must be new!" the pink mare exclaimed in a single breath of air. Flamebolt eyed this strange pink mare, finding her to be rather strange and a bit annoying. He side stepped her and continued on his way without acknowledging her. The mare turned and frowned as he walked away. "Hey!" she called out. "You didn't even tell me your name!" she exclaimed, hoping to at least get a name to put to his face. "Wouldn't you like to know..." he murmured under his breath. "I don't have time to talk, I'm busy!" he called back to her without even turning around. She hopped after him until she could catch up and was right beside him. "My names Pinkie Pie and if you need any help I can help, I love helping, I mean, I know this place inside and out, of course not actually inside and out, how weird would that be to know everything inside and out!" Pinkie giggled. Pinkie Pie was a happy go getter earth pony that loved throwing parties all the time. She had a lot of spunk and was happy to always meet anypony new and become friends with them. She is the bearer of the Element of Laughter, she may be goofy a lot of the times but she knows when she has to get a little serious depending on the situation. "Look, just leave me alone" Flamebolt scowled, in no mood to talk. "You look like you need a friend to turn that frown upside down" Pinkie said as she cupped her cheeks and presented a big smile. Flamebolt stiffed, gritting his teeth in anger and disgust. "I don't need a friend!" he yelled as he took off as fast he could down the road, trying to find somewhere to go that overly happy mare couldn't follow. With every corner he turned and every place he managed to hide in, Pinkie was somehow there, always two steps ahead of him. "Everypony needs a friend, silly!" Pinkie giggled again. Finding himself at a loss, the pegasus had enough of the over energetic pink mare and took off into the sky, flying higier and higher before checking to make sure he wasn't being followed. "Lost her, no way can an earth pony reach me up here" he sighed in relief, glad to be away from her. "Are we playing tag?!" Pinkie popped up from under a cloud, causing the pegasus to fly back in surprise. "You're it!" she bopped him on the nose and disappeared. Flamebolt couldn't understand what just happened and how she was in a cloud but groaned in frustration and shook his head. "Alright, enough of this. I have to find that pony quick" he flew in the opposite direction, more pasted the center of the town and landed. "Maybe I can find somepony else to give me directions...and hopefully not deal with that pest again" he murmured. He looked around and was taken back by the large structure in front of him. A grand castle, tree like in shape with crystal covering it. The suns rays shined off the crystal, giving a beautiful purple glow from the castle. "How did I not notice this?" Flamebolt asked in surprise. "Well whoever lives here can probably tell me who the pony is and where I can find them" he headed toward the castle, hoping to get the information he needed without any disruption. Within the castle walls Twilight, a purple Alicorn whose the princess of friendship and bearer of the Element of Magic, was busy organizing her books again while Spike, a small dragon who is her assistant, took note of each one and helped her to sort them into different piles. "How long have we been doing this?" the baby dragon complained, putting one more book on an already too high of a tower. "I'm starting to get bored." Twilight laughed slightly. "Oh Spike, how can you be bored? Organizing books is so exciting" she placed one of her books written by Starswirled the Bearded in its proper place. "Besides, it has to be done." Spike grumbled to himself, putting another book on the tower, only for it to topple over on top of him and becoming a mess on the floor. The doors to the castle creaked open and Flamebolt popped his head inside , looking around before entering the castle. "Hello?!...Anypony here?!" his voice echoed through the halls, carrying it all the way to the library. Spike popped his head out of the pile of books and heard the call and looked up to Twilight. "Twilight, Did you hear that?" he asked, pulling himself out of the book avalanche. Twilight flew down from the top shelves and looked to the doors. "I did, but I don't recognize the voice. It's can't be one of our friends, otherwise they would of came right here to look for me…" she thought about who it could of been. "It must be a new pony we haven't met yet!" she exclaimed excitedly about making a new friend. "Spike could you go and greet our guest while I finish putting these books back" she picked up her books in her purple aura that emanated from her horn and went to work at a much faster pace then when they first started. "You got it Twi!" Spike ran out of the library and headed to the front gates to see who had come by. Flamebolt however already enter through the doors and was heading down one of the corridors, looking around with interest and amazement. "Not bad, whoever lives here has a pretty good life going for them" he stopped in front of opened double doors, spotting a large round table with six chairs, each with a mark carved into the top of the seat. "Nice room, this must be an important meeting spot" he entered the room and took a seat in the chair with a lightning bolt cutie mark. "I feel like one of those generals or something... We will attack while the enemies defenses are down!" he chuckled at his bad impression. Spike wandered the castle after he found the entrance empty, wondering where their guest was. He could hear voices coming from the main meeting room and headed down that way, stumbling upon the pegasus in Rainbow Dash's chair, talking to himself and chuckling. "Hey who are you and what are you doing here?" the baby dragon asked with a harsh tone of voice. Flamebolt stopped what he was doing and turned to see a tiny dragon. "Giving orders to my soldiers" he said nonchalantly still trying to be in character. "You're not suppose to be in here" Spike warned. "Well, there weren't any guards to stop me so I assumed it was fine" Flamebolt said, sitting back comfortably in the chair. Spike gritted his teeth, becoming agitated with this new pony and his overconfidence. "What do you want?" He asked. "I just came to get some information, figured whoever lives here can tell me" he stretched out and got more comfortable in the chair, stretching his legs and laying them across the round crystal table. After making contact with the table, a small red glow circled around the table but the two didn't notice and the glow faded. "What kind of information? Spike asked with caution, not trusting this stallion that basically entered the castle with no permission. The pegasus eyed him and chuckled before saying. "Well, now that's classified. I can tell that shrimp like you clearly can't help me with what I'm looking for. Who owns this castle anyway?" Spike was about to say something when a new voice joined the two. "That would be mine" The voice softly echoed. Flamebolt turned to the new voice, his gaze looking upon a purple alicorn standing at the entrance. "That's more like it" he grinned as he got off the chair and stood before her. "I am Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship" she introduced herself. "And who are you?" Flamebolt crinched at the title and clenched his teeth at the words, he tried to compose himself enough to speak. "I don't just give my name away, and besides I only came to get some information" he retorted. Twilight frowned, not liking the attitude he was giving her, but she decided to ignore it for the time being. "What kind of information exactly?" "You see, I'm looking for somepony, and with the info I got so far, I've traced it to this town" Suddenly the entrance doors bursted open and a rush of wind blew through the hallway leading to the room the three were in and a pink blur zoomed through until it found Twilight. "Twilight! Twilight! Just the pony I was looking for, have you seen a new pegasus around? I saw him in town and I followed him for a while, I think we were playing tag, and then I got distracted because I saw the Cakes. The babies were so cute! Anyway, then I noticed he was gone and I went to find him again, but I lost him and…" Flamebolt groaned and shook his head at the sight of the crazy pink mare. "Not you again" he took a few steps back. Pinkie heard the voice and turned to face him. She squealed in excitement and pounced on him, a big grin formed on her face. "There you are! I've been looking all over, see Twilight this is the pony I was telling you about, see, see, see!" she exclaimed. Twilight approached the two and eyed her. "You know him?" "Well yeah! We were playing tag" she looked down at him. "You're not very good at it though, when you play tag you're supposed to find the pony who tagged you silly" Pinkie giggled. "Get off of me!" he shoved her off and got back onto his hooves, dusting himself off. Pinkie stepped back, a bit hurt by his rudeness, but before anything could be said, the alicorn stepped between them. "There's no reason to be so mean, she's just trying to be nice." "I don't need nice, I just need information" he retorted, becoming agitated. "I'm looking for somepony who was able to bring a legend to life" Twilight eyed him. "What kind of legend?" she asked curiously. "The Sonic Rainboom" Flamebolt answered. Pinkie gasped and jumped up and down in utter excitement. "You must be talking about Rainbow Dash! Yeah she's fast alright, one of the best and the fastest fliers I've seen anywhere!" 'Rainbow Dash?...That name sounds familiar...' he thought to himself. "Why are you even looking for Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked with interest. Flamebolt snapped out of his thoughts. "It's none of your business!" he exclaimed. "Where can I find her?" Spike and Twilight exchanged glances then looked up at Pinkie before turning back to the pegasus. "You have to tell us the reason first" she declared. He sighed in frustration, all he wanted was to know where the pony was, but it seemed that things were becoming more complicated. "Look, if you take me to her, I'll let you know" "And why should we trust you?" Spike crossed his arms, not trusting anything this stallion says. "I just need to know something alright, and once I find her I'll get my answer and I won't bother you again" he promised, his voice becoming edgy. Twilight studied him for a long moment before answering. "Alright we'll help you, but you better not do anything bad to her, she's our friend and you will be sorry if you do anything to her, got it?" Flamebolt nodded in compliance, not intimidated by her threat. "Follow me! I know exactly where Rainbow Dash is" Pinkie shouted and trotted out of the room. "She's probably sleeping but I don't know where cause she likes to sleep all over Ponyville, but then again she could be at the academy, or she's over at Sugar Cube Corner... or maybe she went to Fluttershy's…." the pink mares voice become faint the further away she got from the main meeting room until it was just a silent echo. Spike and Twilight followed right on her heels, leaving the pegasus to trail along behind them. "I can't believe I'm stuck with these annoying ponies and a dragon" he murmured, keeping his gaze on them, but he was agitated by the whole thing right now. "But they know where this pegasus is...so I have to rely on them for now" he sighed. 'Just you wait Rainbow Dash, time to see if all my training paid off'