Once upon a time, there was a place—a majestic place—untouched by no man. History would tell the youthful that the place was sought to be “Old West,” but to the creatures that lived there the land was ageless. It had no beginning and no end. No boundary between the earth and sky, like the wind in the Buffalo grass. The sun glimmers together with the late-spring breeze. The West was a gift from nature, but the mustangs that breathe true life into the land; as lively as their spirit, they gallop across the land, the fields, and the hills, nowhere in the world can they be freer.
A couple of rabbits hop across the grass, playing under the warming sun. As they argue over whose turn is it to jump over the other, they felt a sudden shake on the land. Then another. Then a rumble. Then a grounded thunder, bringing them both off balance as a herd of horses gallop through the field. It was a miracle in itself that the poor cotton tails survived from such an ordeal.
The herd was lead by a marvelous stallion, his coat as yellow as the morning sun, staining with an earthy brown to the legs and snout, and his mane flowing freely like the Buffalo grass to the breeze. His name was Spirit, named by a two-legged who (as the mustang later realized after meeting him) was living as free as his herd.
Riding right beside him was a sorrel mare with raindrop colored eyes and as beautiful as the fall season—Rain. Following close behind them was Spirit’s mother, an old, yet still beautiful palomino mare. She is the true leader of the herd, but given her son’s rambunctious nature, there was no harm in letting in lead. And finally, soaring high above the herd was Spirit’s closest companion, a majestic eagle, screeching high and jolly as he takes the lead, with Spirit racing up to his shadow.
And so is the life of the mighty mustang. Running forever free, in a land as ageless as the wind.
It has already plenty of moons after Spirit’s adventure with the two-legged, yet the energizing feeling of granted freedom still surged within him. As much as Spirit was happy returning home with Rain and reuniting with his mother, there was a certain pang in his heart he cannot seem to relieve. He should be contented with this. He has his mother, his herd, his flying companion, and perhaps most especially, Rain. His home stretches far out into the horizon, no two-legged in sight, and predators kept at bay. What could he possibly lack that has his heart longing for something he cannot fathom?
One day, as the sun rests at the edge of the horizon, Spirit trots around the herd to attend to his daily duties. He affirms the foals safe; they lay at the center the herd, tired from play, their mothers watching them in comfort. He sees the rest of the herd slowly giving in to fatigue, but nevertheless remain vigilant on lurking pumas and other predators. As soon as he assures that every stallion, mare and foal are accounted for Spirit lets out a snort of content, trotting back to where Rain and his mother lay in wait. But suddenly a glint from above catches his eye; a tiny star twinkling brighter than the others. Spirit loved the vast sea of stars and stargazes nearly every night before slumber, but a tingling feeling tells him that this star is different; as though it’s the very first time he sees such a fickle little thing. What’s more, its light shining a tinge of pink. The tingling feeling became a slight sense of alarm when Spirit sees the star erratically zip away like a firefly! Stars most definitely do not move like that, if not at all!
Spirit calls to his mother, telling her from a shake from his muzzle that there is something he needs to check. The matriarch nods in confirmation, but also in confusion, as she and Rain watch him quickly gallop away from the herd.
Spirit continues to follow the erratic star in curiosity, and as he notices that the zigzagging movement of the star seems to move a little faster, he adjusts his pace to keep up. The mustang snorts in annoyance as the star zipped faster and faster, and before he knew it, he was galloping at full speed, racing against the star as he does with his flying companion. The mustang’s breathing became more haggard, and he lost track of how long he’s been running, but he doesn’t care; it has been such a long time since he felt such adrenaline, and he is definitely not going to lose against a tiny star!
The race soon came to an end when Spirit’s sight on the star clouded into his vision. He halted in aggravation and disappointment—his race was stopped by stupid clouds in the sky! But as the mustang looks around his surroundings, it seems that the clouds are everywhere. He was in a fog. A really thick fog. He can’t even see the ground in his full height! Fogs only appear in the wake of dawn, has he been racing against the star the whole night? Perhaps if he waits it out, the fog will disperse. Spirit trotted slowly forwards, hoping he could somehow walk out of the fog for double measure. But after what seemed like hours, the fog was nowhere close to dispersing. Just as the mustang stomped the earth hard in annoyance, a familiar glint catches his eye from above—it’s the star!
But wait; something’s off. Actually, scratch that, a lot of things are off. For one, the star seems to be hovering right above him, inside the fog. For another, it seems to be growing bigger and bigger, but retaining its same brightness as before. The mustang can only tilt his head to the side as something even weirder than the two-leggeds is floating right in front of him. The star forms into a more solid shape, having six points on all sides and what seems to be six smaller white stars surrounding it. It’s the size of a large bird now, nudging a little backwards as though it’s telling the confused mustang to follow it. Spirit could only comply with a nod; it could lead him out of this weird fog. With no warning at all, the star zoomed away, prompting the mustang to sprint at full speed. Spirit smirks in excitement—the race is back on!
*********
Mornings in Ponyville are never peaceful. From magical creatures popping up and making a mess to Pinkie Pie’s rise-and-shine-everypony-it’s-time-to-celebrate-a-brand-new-day parties to Discord’s ‘morning runs’, there always seem to be something crazy to rouse everypony’s morning. But this morning in particular is unexpectedly tranquil. Not a single monster in sight. Everypony was cautious at first—some even bothered to look up from outside their window to check if a rainbow-haired pegasus was flying too fast or if a bubbly pinky pony was literally bouncing off their roofs singing the next earworm of the week. But once they were sure that nothing in particular is happening that could potentially ruin Equestria or cause property damage, they went along to enjoy their once-in-a-long-while-peaceful morning.
The rainbow-haired pegasus and bubbly pink pony in question are actually inside Twilight’s castle, together with all of their best friends, enjoying scrumptious pancakes.
“These pancakes are delicious, Pinkie Pie!” said Applejack, as she adjusted her Stetson hat before delving into her apple-flavored pancake, the apples of course are courtesy to Sweet Apple Acres.
Pinkie Pie’s portion was more whip-cream than pancake, and she made extra effort to add sprinkles on top.
“No problem! It actually just dawned on me a couple of days ago that we didn’t have a pancake-morning session for the last 3 seasons! And this time Twilight is fully awake to enjoy it!”
Twilight gave her an assuring nod as she took a bite of her perfectly-circular pancake, topped with exactly 4 raspberries and 6 banana slices.
“Thanks for setting this up again Pinkie Pie. And I’m sorry for last time.”
“It was in the past, darling. Besides, the castle has gotten a fabulous upgrade after that!” said Rarity. She gestured her hoof around the room as if to show-off the furniture that she herself arranged for Twilight’s dining room, giving itself a sparkle every now and then. She then turned to Pinkie, cutting away her pancake which is the most aesthetic looking pastry in the room, by the way (although all of the pancakes taste equally amazing, Pinkie Pie made sure of that).
“But Pinkie dear, what could you possibly mean by ‘the last 3 seasons’? I don’t remember us celebrating this kind of breakfast last winter.”
“I’m not talking about those kinds of seasons, silly!” Pinkie Pie replied, making a wink towards an open space, to nopony in particular. Everypony mentally agreed that this is just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, so it’s best to just leave her be.
“Oh, but she’s definitely right that it’s been a long time since we had such a peaceful breakfast.” Fluttershy said. Her blueberry-topped pancake is being shared with her pet Angel bunny, but Angel’s definition of ‘sharing’ is leaving one-fourths of the pancake to Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash nodded beside her, her face stuffed with pancakes and syrup.
“Mmm-mmmf! Now that the School of Friendship is on semester break and the students returned home, we finally have some relaxing down time with just the six of us!”
Indeed it was. Every creature of Twilight’s School of Friendship was either at home with their families or enjoying a trip with their best friends (six creatures in peculiar). Cozy Glow, a young, innocent-looking Pegasus turned out to be not-so-innocent looking at all, and is now spending her days with her pen pal, Tirek, in Tartarus. The Pillars are of doing their own things all throughout Equestria, some going even beyond its border. Starlight was on another road trip with her best friend, Trixie, and this time joining them are Maud Pie and Sunburst, but that’s another adventure.
“Yupperoony!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“There is absolutely no way that something new and mysterious would wound up here in Equestria accidentally, only for the six of us to investigate and help that particular mysterious thingy to do whatever plot-driven narrative we’re meant to do!”
The other six could only stare at her, some mouths still stuffed with pancakes. Some could only sigh. Again, just Pinkie being Pinkie.
“Hey Dashie, stop hogging all the syrup! Can you pass some to me—e-e-e-e-e-e!!!“
All of a sudden Pinkie Pie’s whole body was fidgeting on her chair. Her mane was spiking at every direction, and her tail seems to be shortening and elongating like an accordion (which Pinkie did attempt before at a music festival, and succeeded). She was riveting on her seat like an alarm clock, which, quite expectedly, alarmed everypony.
“What’s goin’ on, sugarcube? Is this another Pinkie Sense shindig?”
“I dunno! This is different than the other combos! The last time I felt something like this was when Twilight didn’t believe in my Pinkie Sense!”
Everyone then looked at Twilight. This made her slightly fidget in place.
“What? I still do believe in the Pinkie Sense!” Twilight defended herself with a huff.
“Well, um, anyway,” she continued, “can you tell where it’s coming from, Pinkie?” she asked, remembering the previous incident clearly.
“Uh-h-h-h i-i-it’s coming from….Sweet Apple Acres!”
Applejack immediately jumped right of her seat and headed straight outside.
“What?! My family could be in danger! C’mon, ya’ll! Let’s hightail over there!”
Everypony nodded in unison, dropped whatever pancake they were eating (except Pinkie, who gobbled up her plate of pancakes, plate included), and ran after Applejack.
Just a minute later, another door slightly opened. Spike peered out yawning, a small blanket in one claw and a cute plushie of a certain white unicorn in the other.
“Mornin guys. Am I late for pancake-morning again?”
He looked around to see the now empty room, with half-eaten pancakes left on the table.
“Hey, where’d everypony go? And is somepony gonna finish those pancakes?”