Chapter II: The Mane Six
-Equestria-
The cream mare managed to sit up after her time asleep, but she remained hunched over due to the pain that throbbed deep in her chest. The white-hot bolts that radiated from her during her fall had nearly killed her, but all that remained were slight scars. She checked her flank for her cutie mark to make sure it was still there- and it was. It was a small, complicated mark in the shape of a heart. Intricate patterns and words were etched into it. She remembered the day it had arrived, oh so long ago. She smiled at the fond memory and then another memory floated by in equal strength of memory.
-Flashback-
"Do you remember the old mare's tale, darling?" a young mare inquired to the cream filly, who nodded eagerly to the question. The young mare gently laughed as she brushed dark blue bangs out of her eyes. "Here, since I'm old and can't remember much, help me tell it?" the young mare teased as she watched the cream filly's eyes lit up and she giggled as she said a quiet,
"Yes!" the young mare settled down into her furniture and for a moment she watched the flames flicker in the fireplace. The red bricks gave a gently glow as their shadows were cast onto the soft carpet of the floor. The room was adorned with bookshelves and a high ceiling, and voices in the background were heard, talking about shelving books and what was happening in Equestria that day. The young mare smiled as she watched her eager daughter bounce up and down, waiting for the tale to start. She smiled and started to hum. Her voice was melodic in tune and beautiful in nature. It was equally as haunting. The mare's daughter jumped up on the piece of furniture as well and snuggled closely by her.
"Alright, you can start, darling," the young mare whispered in the middle of her humming, and the young filly began, her voice almost as beautiful as her mother's,
" One day, oh one day, At the founding of the world, There was speech of a time where the Founders would die. So they built up a world where They could watch their mortal world grow, and in time, they would say, they would say they'd return. But centuries passed and both worlds stayed together, but they forgot what their founders had proudly once said..." she trailed off, but her mother picked up the chorus,
" One day, oh one day, We will promise we'll return, in the gifts of our hopes, our time and essences, we will never let you fall, and-" halfway through the chorus, another pony walked down the curved staircase from the second level of the library, speaking the rest of the lyrics,
"Many moon passed still, and no sign of the essences came, but a young Pegasi was born to a family wished to prove the mortal world wrong. So he trained and he trained his young wings to fly, and one day he kissed his mother goodbye and set off for the distant sky. He flew strong and hard up through the clouds he did soar, and near the dome of the sky he hit a glass floor and did fall. The glass, you see did shatter, and many things did fall with him, but things that had fallen were things you cannot see. He shattered the Tether that did keep the essences from coming from Heaven, and as he fell, his soul died with him. The essences kept falling, and eventually reached the mortal world. The mortal world then did prosper greatly from the madness since its creation, but after its creation and prosperity, the essences soon died," It was an older colt who had said the rest of the lyrics, and he had reached the bottom of the stairwell far before he had finished speaking the lyrics.
"I see you're still teaching the young filly to remember her old mare's tales, Lily," The young mare named Lily nodded and smiled gently.
"She knows them well," the Colt nodded.
"When she's old enough, bring her back here, there's something she needs to see before we both..." he sighed, "... expire, per say." Lily sadly nodded and looked back at the sleeping filly.
"I'll have someone do it if I can't. Is it that important?" The Colt smiled mysteriously,
"Think of your Old Mare's Tales, Lily,"
* * *
-Ponyville-
Applejack casually strolled through the streets of Ponyville, awaiting to gather up the other five Ponies so Avalon could meet them all. As she was reaching Twilight's library, Pinkie Pie joined up with her, bouncing around on all four legs as usual.
"Hey Applejack!" Pinkie exclaimed, her hair bobbing with her, "Whatcha' doin?" Applejack kept walking but had to break out a smile at her friend's nearly inextinguishable personality.
"Oh, somepony landed on mah farm earlier, Ah was gonna have her meet y'all," Pinkie registered the comment quickly and she exclaimed, half squealing,
"Ooooohhhhh!!! I thought I saw something fall out of the sky! I wondered if it was a star! I've always wanted to see a star! Or wait, what if it was a pony? I don't know if a pony could survive falling out of the sky! So it was probably a star! What was it really? What does it look like? This makes me excited! Can we throw it a party? Does it speak? What does it look like? What-" her endless stream of comments was cut off right as a bright cyan blue blur flew down from the sky, followed by a trailing rainbow bowled her over. Through the dust, coughing, and a couple of seconds later, the cyan blue Pegasus helped Pinkie up. Pinkie's eyes rolled around in her head for a minute before settling. She started bouncing again immediately afterwards.
"Hey Applejack!" the Pegasus announced as she dusted herself off. Applejack shook her head, a smile still on her face. She walked over to the Pegasus and Pinkie and settled down for a moment.
"Hey Rainbow," Applejack replied, "we were just off to do somethin' quick," Pinkie piped up, still bouncing around,
"Yeah! Somepony fell out of the sky Applejack said! The sky!! Rainbow, can you believe it!? What if it's not actually a pony, but a star! Applejack's gonna have all of us meet it and, and.... and!..." Rainbow raised her eyebrows in confusion and cocked her head slightly as she looked at Applejack. Applejack cleared her throat and continued,
"You hush a minute, Pinkie." Applejack returned her attention to Rainbow and stated, "Pinkie is right though, somepony landed on mah farm earlier today and Ah was gonna have all of us meet her. You up to it, Rainbow?" Rainbow blinked a couple of times before speaking, and she shook her head as if to get her thoughts straight as she spoke.
"You said a pony fell out of the sky?" Applejack nodded slowly. Rainbow's face was contorted between shock and laughter, but she kept the two in check with a wild smile and eyes closed as if she were about to explode with bouts of laughter. "That's a great one, Pinkie-" she paused, "- you too, Applejack!" "Ponies falling out of the sky... ahhhh," she fell on the ground with laughter, and Applejack narrowed her eyes and shook her head.
"Ah'm serious, Rainbow!" Rainbow paused for a second to hear the comment, but before she continued, another comment flew past her ears, "And she's mighty injured, too. Maybe y'all should go 'fore me so I can drag Twilight out of her house for a minute," Rainbow sobered up and called over her shoulder as she began to fly away,
"I have to go grab a couple of things for Rarity before then-" another voice piped up from the ground below her,
"Don't worry, darling! I have it all covered!" Rainbow shrugged and flew off towards Applejack's Farm.
"Applejack, I saw the most disastrous thing happen this morning! A bright light fell out of the sky!" a white Unicorn with a fancily-made purple mane announced, trotting up to keep up with Applejack. Applejack glanced at the white Unicorn and nodded,
"Glad you heard all the commotion, Rarity," Rarity's face twisted into confusion and she replied,
"So what happened? It sounded terrible! Like something was dying!" Applejack stopped for a moment and answered her friend,
"Somepony landed on my farm this morning. Ah ain't sure what exactly in tarnation happened, but Ah dressed her up a bit and she's at mah Farm now," Rarity's eyes widened and she seemed shocked for a moment.
"I'll go check on her before you go get Fluttershy and Twilight!" she trotted off, leaving Applejeack and Pinkie alone again.
"Well, Ah suppose yer gonna go grab the poor mare somethin' to fiddle with too, huh?" Applejack dryly noted. Pinkie stopped bouncing and her eyes widened immensely.
"That's a GREAT idea!!! I'll go grab her cupcakes and cakes and drinks and balloons and party favors and oohhhhhhhhh this is gonna be great!!!" Pinkie squealed as she immediately seemed to vanish from Applejack's sight.
* * *
Rainbow Dash was the first one to reach the farm, and she slowly nudged the door open. It was still light enough outside to see everything inside, and she could see the huddled form of Avalon near the middle of the barn.
"Hey, Applejack told me about you," Rainbow started, slowly walking in. She noticed Avalon didn't notice her, so Rainbow cleared her throat and sat on her haunches as she waited. She jumped a bit at the quietly tired response,
"Hey," Rainbow made no time for silence to interfere. She laid down in front of Avalon and stated in a friendly enough voice, with a hint of gloating,
"I'm Rainbow Dash, best young flyer in all of Equestria, responsible of keeping the clouds of Ponyville away and the only one to successfully do a Sonic Rainboom!" she trotted a little bit in place to show off her athleticism, and Avalon giggled slightly to herself, which left Rainbow a little leeway to get defensive. "Hey, wha-what are you laughing at!?" Avalon calmed her giggling and she had a thin smile on her face and eyed Rainbow with her amber set of eyes.
"You remind me of a friend of mine from a long time ago," "You really do, Rainbow." she was about to ask Avalon something else, but Avalon beat her to it, "but you're the only Pegasi I've heard that has ever done a Sonic Rainboom," Rainbow smiled and her self esteem seemed to shoot through the roof.
"So where did you come from, anyway? Out of country, maybe?" Rainbow inquired, eyeing Avalon carefully.
"I..." Avalon paused. How I can tell them I came from a place that they probably don't even remember? I can't just lie to them, either... she thought. She struggled to think of an answer, but finally blurted, "I fell from a place farther up in the sky than Cloudsdale," Rainbow sat straight up and pointed up into the air with her hoof.
"Father than Cloudsdale!?" "You've gotta be kidding me! Nopony could survive-" she cut herself off as she glanced at Avalon. "I mean, outside of you, of course..." Avalon let out small laugh as she grinned and replied,
"It's fine, Rainbow," Rainbow Dash smiled back and replied,
"You're pretty open for a new pony around here, you know that?" Avalon her smile on her face.
"It's nice to be around so many friendly ponyfolk around here... a place where madness hasn't ridden everywhere into the ground," she mentioned softly. As she stretched her back, in habit she also stretched her wings. Rainbow Dash immediately spoke up,
"By any chance do you race at all? Have you won? You kind of look like you would, I mean your wings are.. just... wow," Avalon fluttered her wings to get some feeling back into them and she answered,
"I used to as a young filly, mostly with my brother and his friends, but... after falling from way up there, I'd need to rehabilitate myself somehow to get back up to strength," Rainbow was hyped to hear the answer and she bubbled with excitement.
"Well, I could help you there!!" Avalon stuck her tongue out and replied,
"So I've assumed, Rainbow, so I've assumed," After her comment, Pinkie burst through the door, holding a huge amount of cakes and cupcakes and random assortments of goodies. She set them down on a random table situated near Avalon, and she bounced her way towards her.
"Hey!! I heard you fell from the sky! You don't look like a star, you're just like me and everypony else! Hehe that's pretty cool! Do you like cupcakes? Do you like to party? What do you do with your time? Are you friendly? You don't speak too much, do you-" Avalon slowly put her hoof on top of Pinkie's mouth to get to stop, and she replied as she got up and took a small bit of the cake she was offered,
"So who are you, firstly?..." she trailed off as she chewed on her small bite of cake. The sweetness was amazing, and she blinked a time or two as she refocused herself on her question, but forgot it in the midst of the moistness of the cake. "... this is delicious." she stated finally. Pinkie erupted with squeals of joy,
"I knew you were just like us!! You love cake and I love cake you and probably like to bake and stuff, too! Right, am I right? Of course I am!" she squealed again. She bounced off and Rainbow Dash slowly nudged Avalon to refocus her. Avalon shook her head and glanced at the cakes.
"Her name's Pinkie, the best Party planner in Ponyville," Rainbow Dash mentioned, smiling widely. "She's good at what she does, and-" Applejack walked in next with Rarity and Twilight not too far behind.
"Always seems to be everywhere at once, ain't ya?" Applejack panted. "Sorry Ah was later than Ah had planned, Avalon, Ah had to chase here Twilight around Ponyville and then drag her out by her tail to get her here," Avalon smiled and looked at the five ponies present and she felt her heart strings pull-- tightly. She winced a little bit, but sat a little taller when she recovered. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rarity fiddling with her mane, and Avalon glanced at her, eyebrows raised.
"Your mane looks awful! What on Earth were you doing way up there?" Avalon thought for a moment and replied dimly,
"Not winning any races for flying, that's one thing," Rarity gave a gentle laugh as she continued muttering under her breath,
"No, that's too bland, that's kind of neat... too many sparkles..." she squinted at her fine work as she made her way down Avalon's mane. It partially resembled her own, but with the freedom and raggedness of Rainbow's. Rarity stood back and swayed her head a little before settling that it was as good as she was going to get the cream mare's mane to look. "When you fly, obviously it won't stay that way, but it at least it looks decent, darling," she said in a slightly calculating voice. She gave a thin smile and Avalon glanced at her reflection in a nearby bucket of water. She blinked as she saw herself. You haven't looked like this for awhile, she thought. She smiled and turned back to the five ponies. The last one slowly crept in through the half-open door and she smiled shyly.
"I didn't want to disturb my friends as I gathered them together to put them all to rest," she said softly, sitting up. Avalon glanced over in the Pegasi's direction and smiled.
"And that's Fluttershy," Applejack announced, breaking the shy silence that was presented as Fluttershy had walked in.
"Now that we're all here..." Twilight started, thinking about what she was to say next, "where are you from exactly? You don't look like you were from Canterlot, definitely not from the Everfree Forest and I don't think you would be from Cloudsdale, because you would have known Rainbow Dash already," Avalon glanced at Twilight and responded,
"I'm from a place older Ponyfolk call the Higher Heavens," Twilight's eyes nearly burst out of her head when she heard the news. She began pacing around, muttering to herself in a hushed manner. Avalon raised her eyebrows in confusion. Rainbow Dash answered her confusion,
"She does that a lot when she hears something she knows a lot about," Rainbow Dash stuck her tongue out at her friend and continued teasingly, "she's kind of an egghead,"
"Hey!" Twilight called from across the barn in mid concentration, "You admitted you liked reading too, Rainbow!" Rainbow Dash smiled sheepishly as she stumbled into admitting it further,
"Well... yeah..." she gave a familiar squinted-eyed smile and laughed. "I do like reading, but to Twilight's excessiveness, quite a different story if you ask me!"
Twilight was still muttering to herself before she let out a cry of joy, making everypony in the Barn cover their ears and shut their eyes for a moment. She glanced at Avalon and started rattling off what she knew.
"So you're from the Higher Heavens? The place in the sky that was built to watch over all of Equestria before Canterlot was built, and every one hundred years the two Governmental structures would meet and discuss the needs of them and us?" Avalon nodded, a touch of sadness to it as well. She led all the ponies outside the barn and she laid in the grass and she stared up into the sky.
"Twilight, there's always more to things than what your studies tell you," she noted. the other ponies laid by her, Twilight being the only one completely entranced by the knowledge she was about to receive.
"And what might that be?" Twilight responded, a dash of defensiveness behind her words. Avalon glanced sideways at the purple unicorn and replied after taking in a breath of the fresh air,
"I guess it's never too late to start,"
* * *