"There is a world, called Equestria. A world, where ponies and other creatures, like Dragons, Griffons and others, live in harmony.
It is ruled by two royal sisters: Princess Celestia and her younger sister, Princess Luna. The two are alicorns, a mix between an earth pony, a pegasus and a unicorn. Those pony species control the land, weather and magic respectively.
Both sisters were tasked with two important jobs: Princess Celestia would raise the sun and bring the warm days, while Princess Luna raises the moon to bring the cool nights. One day, a conflict between the two sisters happened. It was due to the ponies admiring Princess Celestia more than Luna. The built up hatred had changed her to a horryfiying being, known as Nightmare Moon... Unable to reason with her, Princess Celestia had no choice but to banish her sister to the moon with the Elements of Harmony.
After that, Princess Celestia ruled this world alone, raising both the sun and the moon. However, she felt regretful, that she had to banish her younger sister. She felt guilty after that.... Had she known about Luna's resentment earlier and acted fast, then nothing of those terrible events would even happen. Even the destroyed castle of the two sisters is a reminder of that fateful day. Regardless, she had to continue to rule, for Equestria's sake...Until thousand years later, Nightmare Moon returned.. She was on an unfinished task to make the night last for an eternity. Celestia knew about this and sent her faithful student on a quest to make her find new friends. Although the young unicorn was hesitant, she found 5 ponies, who stand by her side until the end.
After Nightmare Moon's return, the group retreated and decided to go on a journey to find the Elements of Harmony. During their showdown, the situation was tense: Nightmare Moon was gaining the upperhand and crushed the elements, in order to crush their spirits. However, little did she know, that when the unicorn realized about a spark, the elements were restored and chose their new bearers. Those were the elements of Honesty, Laughter, Generousity, Kindness, Loyalty and finally...magic. With those, they put the conflict to an end, Princess Luna reunited with her older sister and started over.
Over the years, the 6 ponies had stopped terrible disasters and tyrants, which included a monstrous insect queen and a literal king of shadows, with their magic of Friendship. Eventually, one of the ponies was turned into an alicorn and became a princess.
Since then, the Harmony in this world grew and Equestria was peaceful again. And all thanks to the 6 heroes of Harmony.."
In a little village called "Ponyville", the ponies are doing their usual stuff. Working, hanging out with other ponies and playing with them. They did have some near disasters back then, but they were all thankfully stopped, thanks to their heroes.
Up in the skies, we see a light streak of all the colors of a rainbow, zooming by. It dodged the clouds, performed some loops and overall kept getting faster. It was until it stopped on a big cloud and it turns out, that the streak came from a blue pegasus mare with rainbow-colored mane and tail and magenta eyes. It was none other than the heroine of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash.
"Aw yeah! 5 minutes less than last time!" she said and sat down on the cloud, being proud of beating her own record. She laid down on the cloud with a smile on her face. "I can't wait for the festival next week, so I can perform my famous Sonic Rainboom there!"
"Howdy, sugarcube!"
A voice can be heard. The blue pegasus looked down to see a orange earth pony with blond mane, white freckles and a cowboy hat. The pegasus mare flew down and greeted her best friend, Applejack, the heroine of Honesty.
"Sup, Applejack!" she replied. "How's it going?"
"Takin' care of business as usual." Applejack replied in an southern accent. "Anyway, Ah've seen you speedin' around the skies. "
"Yeah! And I beat my own record!" Rainbow said in an exciting tone and showed her best friend her recent time.
"Pretty impressive. " said the earth pony, before coming up with an idea. "How 'bout a race?"
"Game on!"
Rainbow Dash is always up for a challenge and this one is no exception. The two ponies line up at the start of Ponyville, however Applejack said: "Ah ah ah. Runnin' only, pal."
Rainbow Dash was a bit bummed. She could not use her wings throughout the race. However, her ego got the better of her and charges for a run up, knowing that she has to win. The earth pony mare began the race with:
"Ready?...Go!"
Both ponies got an excellent start. They ran through the whole village and through the fields, while the ponies watched in awe and confusion.
"Better get goin'!" Said Applejack, who was first.
However, Rainbow Dash decided to run even faster, in order to catch up with her friend. "How's that?" she smirked.
They were almost close to the finish, which is the Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack's home. Applejack was close to winning, when Rainbow Dash decided to twist the rules by flapping her wings for some extra boost. She catched up with the orange earth pony and both arrived on the farm lands. And in the end, Rainbow Dash arrived first.
"Yes! Yes! I won!" The blue pegasus celebrated her victory and flew up. However, Applejack was sceptical, since the pegasus cheated a bit.
"Are you sure? Because I've seen usin' your wings a bit." she said.
"What are you talking about?" Rainbow Dash said nervously and tried to act innocent and oblivious.
"Yer usin' your wings, even though you shouldn't use them.." the orange pony doubted and pointed at Rainbow's wings.
"Uh-oh.." the prismatic mare gulped, knowing that her friend found out.
After some awkward silence, Rainbow Dash flew away and Applejack began to chase her shortly after.
It went on, through the orchards, the fields and around the home until they entered the farm, however Rainbow Dash hid in a haystack earlier. While Applejack was looking around searching, Rainbow Dash remained quiet, in order to not get caught.
Suddenly, she felt like, she was touched. At first she thought, Applejack got her, but when she looked around, she saw...nothing. Absolutely nothing.
"This is strange.." the blue pegasus thought to herself. Then, she felt something, as if someone was moving, even though she couldn't see it. It sent shivers down to her spine. She even heard someone breathing. Was that a ghost or was it in her head? She looked back and when the unseen presence began to move and shake, indicated from the hay moving, she screamed and immediately flew up in fear.
"What was that?" Rainbow Dash was scared. "Was that a ghost!??!?!"
"Ahem..."
She looked back and saw Applejack, who unsurprisingly saw her flying up and therefore found her.
"Something is in the haystack!" she replied and pointed at the haystack with her shaking hoof.
"Oh really?" Applejack was sceptical and went to the haystack.
"No, seriously. I felt like, somepony is there inside! I even heard breathing!" Rainbow Dash replied in an honest, yet panicked tone.
The orange earth pony looked closer and suddenly, the haystack began to shake.
"Huh? What the...?"
Applejack began to dig up the haystack. During which, she hit something, that caused a ray of light to appear. The orange mare and the blue pegasus backed up, as the light became stronger, until it faded away. They then saw a pony, sleeping. A black pegasus mare with the wings fading to a bright yellow and blond mane with orange tips, resembling the flames.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack screamed a bit, because they did not expect a new pony appear from the light and thought, she was like a ghost or something.
However, the screaming caused the pony to wake up and looked around, as she opened her blue eyes a bit.
"Dude... Not cool...", the pony rubbed the eyes.
What's that? The mares are surprised, that the pony has a voice of a young stallion. They immediately talked to each other.
"What the hay?" Applejack was confused, as she looked at the black pony. "Since when does that fella talk like a young stallion?"
"I know right? For a second, it looked like a mare. But I did not expect that voice from a dude..." Rainbow Dash was also confused.
"Strange, huh?" Applejack agreed.
"I heard that!" The black pegasus obviously heard the conversation.
Upon further inspection, it turns out, that the pony is actually a young stallion, however he has the body shape of a mare, without the eyelashes. The black pegasus then looked at the mares with curiousity.
"Whoa...Where am I?" he asked. In which, Applejack responded: "You are in my family's barn...How did you get there?"
"Well, I was pretty tired and didn't want to sleep in the woods. So I was finding some shelter and got there." The black pegasus replied, as he was rubbing his eyes. However, this is where he saw his hoof and he froze.
"What the...?"
"Are you okay?" Rainbow Dash asked.
He ran outside and looked down at a puddle, only to see his face. He began to shake and without a warning, he screamed, as Rainbow Dash and Applejack immediately covered their ears. However, the screaming stopped, as Rainbow Dash hit him on the head.
"Jeez, calm down!" The blue mare responded. "Why did you scream?"
"I didn't expect to be turned into a pony... Damnit...What should I do? I don't want to tell the truth, since who knows if they're gonna laugh at me..? What should I tell them?" He thought to himself, as he was thinking for some answers.
"Hello?"
He heard Applejack's voice and responded with: "Oh, it's just that I was tired."
However they didn't believe that statement.
"Shit...That was a bad one..." he thought to himself again, looking even more nervous. It was really flimsy.
"Maybe I had something on my face. " he replied and grinned nervously. "Like a bug! Or some dirt."
"Great excuse, man..." he thought.
The mares look confused. Would they buy into his excuse or not? His mind was scrambled at this point.
"Uh oh... Did it work?" he thought to himself for the third time.
"Okay...?" The mares were unsure of that. It sent him with mixed messages a bit, still felt relieved.
"So, uhm...I'm quite new here and sorry, if I came here uninvited. I was really tired." He apologized.
"Hey, it's all forgiven. Even though, it's strange, that you appeared from a light." Rainbow Dash replied. Although Applejack was still skeptical about his reasoning.
The black pegasus chuckled a bit and soon enough, Rainbow Dash and Applejack laugh with him.
"Sooo...What is this place?" he asked.
"Well, this is the Sweet Apple Acres! Home of our famous apples!" Applejack proudly told the new pony about her home. "We're harvestin' apples and sell 'em to our customers! Our popular products include our famous Apple Cider and the Zap Apple Jam!"
"Everything about apples?" he asked in confusion.
"Well, yeah. I mean, what else?" Rainbow Dash replied.
"Man....A farm only selling apple products? That's.....odd...But...if her family is proud of doing that work...I wouldn't judge them....if I do, then man..." he thought to himself and asked them a question: "So, uhm...Are you doing that work alone?"
"Nah, mah family would help me out, whatever they can!" Applejack replied.
"Oh, uhm. Did I mention, that her family is large? Like really large?" the prismatic mare asked.
"Uhm...no?" he denied, since he had no idea. That was until the southern earth pony mare showed him a photo of their last family meeting. His eyes widened due to the sheer amount of family members, she has. "Geez! Talk about a huge family!!" he said.
"That's mah family for ya!" Applejack replied and the mares laughed, while the black pegasus scratched his head.
"Hey, what's going on?" A voice can be heard, along with a yawn. It was a male voice.
"What the hay was that?" Applejack asked.
"Huh?" Rainbow Dash wondered.
The mares look back, only to see a brown earth pony stallion, coming out of the barn. However, his appearance is...different from any pony. He looks like a stallion with a chocolate-coloured mane, however he has paws, a dog tail and a dog nose. There is also some stubble on his face. He looks more like a hybrid between a pony and a dog. He noticed the mares looking at him awkwardly.
"Uhhhhh...What? Is there something on my teeth?" The stallion asked confused and showed them his teeth. He looked at his own to see, if there are some leftovers stuck on them.
"Uh, yer should look at yourself, fella.." Applejack replied. At first, the stallion was confused. It wasn't until the prismatic pegasus mare added:
"There is a puddle over there.." Rainbow Dash pointed at a puddle and the stallion went and looked at his reflection. His expression changed, once he saw himself.
"That's great..I look like a freak! How did that even happen? " the stallion was shocked at his appearance.
"Buddy, we have no idea.." Rainbow Dash replied.
"Oh my god...As if things couldn't get any weirder..." he sighed and rubbed his head. He looked way different than the other ponies.
Meanwhile, when Applejack looked the other way, she noticed that the black pony was gone. It seems like, he vanished into thin air before the brown stallion came out the barn.
"What the...." she asked. "That's strange. Why did he run away?" the mare thought to herself.
However, before she can question that, she heard a sound. She looked at her flank, only to see her mark, that resembles 3 apples, glow and projected more apples.
"Rainbow Dash! Look at your cutie mark!" She said.
"Huh?" The blue pegasus mare was confused, until she looked at her mark also glowing and projecting lightning bolts.
"Uhhh, why are your flanks glowing and projecting stuff?" The stallion asked in confusion.
Applejack then replied : "Ya see, our cutie marks glow, when there is like a friendship emergency. And it seems like, it's time for us to leave."
Rainbow Dash then added: "Yeah, we have to fulfill out duties to solve friendship problems. We will talk about that later though. See ya!"
The mares ran off, leaving the stallion looking confused and with even more questions.
"What friendship problem???..."
The stallion scratched his head and sighed. During which, he walked around the barn and the whole acres in utter boredom. However, as he looked down while walking, he saw a bit of hair. As he looked closer, the colors are blond and orange, fading each other.
"Well it seems like, he is here..." He started to sniff the hair and begins to walk and sniff the trail. He walked through the apple orchard and pointed to a bush. He found the source, in other words: the pony, he's finding.
"Johnny, I know, you're here!" he yelled at the air and sure enough, the black pony came out after some time.
"Oh, hey buddy!" He tried not to laugh at the appearance.
"Really funny... Anyway, why are you a pony and I'm a weird mix between a pony and a dog?!" He asked.
"Oh, that? Well, it seems like, somehow, we went there after an accident from one of my sisters' inventions." Johnny replied. "And somehow, we were turned into ponies."
The brown stallion thinks a bit and responded: "it would been true, except that I was in an animal shelter, before I fell asleep and when I woke up, I was In a farm!"
"Uhm...maybe we were...uhh..I got you out and-"
However he was interrupted by the hybrid.
"Johnny, you're lying..."
"Wait, what? I don't like to a best friend like you, Dukey." Johnny replied, while sweating a bit.
"Then how do you explain about this!?" He pulled out the blue diary and showed it to him.
"Wait! How did you get it?" He was shocked. In which, Dukey replied: "It was in your backpack. And even before that, I found it in your room. You were just pretending, when in reality, you are hurt!"
While they are arguing, the skies get covered by clouds. It seems like, bad weather will soon come.
"What are you-" Johnny was interrupted again and this time, his expression changed to fear.
"Stop it! Why didn't you told me about this earlier? YOU KNOW, I COULD HAVE HELPED YOU! WHY DID YOU COVER IT UP!?" Dukey yelled at him. The constant questioning soon made him snap and answered with the truth:
"BECAUSE I'M SCARED!"
Tears started to form on his eyes, as Dukey stopped after the confession. Around the same time, the skies started to rain.
"What?..." Dukey was confused...
Johnny's voice started to crack up, as he explained his reason. His ears have also been lowered.
"Because I'm scared, that nobody would listen to me... I've been feeling this for years and I didn't have the courage to tell them. And even then, they would've make the pain even worse... Besides, they are horrible people...That's why I decided to keep my mouth shut...And thus, I made a fake image of myself...You know, the cool and awesome kid with crazy ideas? In reality, the constant pain and abuse made me weak, broken and helpless...And with you being taken away by dad was the final straw...I couldn't stand losing you and yet he shattered me completely to the point, that I absolutely despise them forever! That's the reason, I decided to leave our world forever and take you with me...I just wanted the pain to go away and start over! I wish, I could've told you about my issues, but the fear wouldn't allow me to do that!"
After the explanation, he broke down into tears. At this point, Dukey couldn't help but to feel sorry about him. He's been though absolute hell, yet he kept a fake persona, so nobody would see him cracking. And yet, here he is...witnessing his mental breakdown for the first time.
Suddenly, he felt something breaking inside of him... A painful ache in his body..
"Wait...If he has been through hell...could this mean..?" There are many unanswered questions, that he yet had to find answers.
He then hugged the crying pegasus, as some tears form in his eyes as well.
As the rain got stronger and stronger, so did Johnny's crying. It also became more painful to listen to, as he let all of his despair and anguish out. The breaking ache in the hybrid soon got worse. If there's one thing, he hates, is to see his best friend being in a mental breakdown. Eventually, his crying soon became quieter and quieter, until he stopped, all thanks to the embrace.
"Let's go inside. It's raining.." said Dukey. Johnny agreed with a silent nod and they went back to the farm.
Hours have passed and the rain eventually stopped. During which, the young pegasus fell asleep a bit. The earth pony looked at the entrance, while having thoughts about what happened. He also held his best friend for a while, while waiting. It was at this time, that Rainbow Dash and Applejack came back.
"Hey, guys! Sorry about the whole wait. It took a long time to fix the problem." said Rainbow Dash.
"It's fine." Dukey replied.
"Anyway, is that weird stallion a friend of yours, fella?" Applejack asked. It's clear, that she asked the black pegasus about the other pony. However, since he's asleep, Dukey answered her question.
"Yeah." He replied. "In fact, we're best friends."
Then they hear some grumbling. After Johnny woke up from his nap, the guys looked at their stomachs.
"Oops, I think, I'm hungry." The black pegasus rubbed his stomach.
"So am I." Dukey was also feeling hungry. "I haven't eaten anything for a while."
Rainbow Dash said: "Then we can go to the Sugarcube Corner for some food." Applejack then added: "Besides, our friends are also there and we have planned to hang out together."
"That would be awesome." The black pegasus responded. But before they get up and go, the earth pony mare interupted.
"Wait a minute, we haven't introduced each other yet! Mah name is Applejack, hardworking pony of the Sweet Apple Acres." The earth pony mare introduced herself.
Then the pegasus mare added, alongside with a pose: "And I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest pony alive and completely awesome! What are your names?"
This is a good question. Originally, they will introduce them with their true names, however, sometime later, they decided to drop the idea. After all, their human names would sound weird to the ponies.
"My name is...uhm..." the young pegasus stallion thought of a name.
He looked at his flank to see a symbol. A radioactive symbol with a blue lightning bolt.
"The name is...Radiant Thunder! But you can call me Johnny." He replied.
"Radiant Thunder...What an awesome name!" Rainbow Dash loved it. The name "Radiant Thunder" has a cool tone and style to it.
Now, it's Dukey's turn: "And my name is Coffee Paw, however you can call me Dukey, if you want to."
He came up with that name, after he saw his mark on his flank, resembling a dog paw and a cup of coffee.
Rainbow Dash couldn't help, but to snicker and eventually laugh at the nickname "Dukey" , resulting an annoying look from him and an elbow hit from Applejack.
"Not funny, pardner.." said Applejack in an unamused tone.
"Sorry.." Rainbow Dash apologized and scratched her head.
They heard the stomach growls again.
"Can we girls go already? I'm hungry..." Johnny responded in an impatient manner. Dukey couldn't help but to chuckle a bit.
"Come on now, everypony! Let's go!"
With that sentence from Applejack, the four ponies are now on their way to Ponyville. On their way, Dukey was asking to himself.
"There is something more to the story... What did he mean by being abused by everyone?..."
It was bothering him for a while, ever since Johnny's mental breakdown on the Sweet Apple Acres.
"I'll probably ask myself and the others, but for now...I'm way too hungry. Plus, those ponies are friendly." the brown earth pony thought to himself and looked at his best friend, as well as the mares. They look quite excited. Johnny couldn't help but smile. However, little did anyone know, that mental breakdown at the orchards was only just the beginning....
"Heheheheh..."
The young pegasus stallion was kind of startled by that voice, but decided to swallow it down and enjoy his new life in this new world...for now.
To be continued....