//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: New Worlds, New Faces 
// Story: Prance en France 
// by Sunny_and_Auri_23 
//------------------------------//

It was a mildly sunny Monday morning in Ponyville, not too hot, not too chilly, the sun peeking through the clouds. The Castle of Friendship gleamed in a heavenly light, radiating love and hope all throughout the town. Leftover snow, still melting from that year’s Winter Wrap Up, was glistening in the early sunlight. And all was calm.

“SPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!”

Mostly calm.

“Coming, Twilight, just give me a sec.” The short purple and green dragon hurried into the hall, wiping his hands on his apron.
“Oh good, there you are. I need twenty three hundred-packs of gold star stickers! RIGHT NOW!” Twilight Sparkle yelled in the general direction of the door.
“Right aw-wait what?!” confusion flashed across his face before it swiftly disappeared.” Actually, you know what I don't want to know. Shiny or matt?”
She paused, clearing her throat, “The shiny ones because it reflects the students’ achievements and will help encourage them more!” She finished with a grin though her mind seemed somewhere else. She caught a pink glow from the corner of her eye.
Spike rolled his eyes, “Gotcha. Gimme 6 hours, it’s gonna take a while to get- woah! Twilight, your cutie mark’s glowing!”
“Oh yeah that, another map mission. Great. It’s not like I was busy grading term papers or anything.” Twilight deadpanned. She sighed, “Okay, can you get those stickers and ask Starlight to finish grading for me? I’ll also need you two to cover for me today. I’ll go see where I’m headed this time.”
Just then, a starburst literally floated from the throne room, where the magic map was located, over their heads to a portal that had appeared in front of them.
Spike peeked into the throne room, “Um, Twi? It doesn’t look like the friendship problem is on the map.”
Twilight facehooved, “Another portal!? Okay! Now the map can give us friendship problems from alternate universes? Like we don't have enough in this one. How do I expand the school to fit extraterrestrial creatures!? HOW MUCH MORE FRIENDSHIP DO WE NEED TO SPREAD!?”
Spike fiddled with his checklist which had “hundred-pack shiny gold pack star stickers” written on it twenty three times. “Like butter on bread.” He noted nonchalantly.

“Twilight, Twilight!” A very pink earthpony opened the doors to the castle with great force. With one brief glance at the portal, she declared to the other new arrivals behind her, “Oh my gosh, the map’s taking us to Paris!”
Twilight furrowed her brow, “Paris? Pinkie, how did you know that?”
Pinkie only grinned, “Just a hunch!”
Rarity stepped forward with no small amount of confusion, “Paris? Like, Mareis? In Prance? La crème de la crème de l' Equestria?" 
“I thought that was Canterlot.” Rainbow Dash commented.
Rarity held a defensive stance, “Two cities can be the crème de la crème of my heart, merci beaucoup.”
Spike chose that moment to insert himself in the conversation, “I agree with Rarity.” He coughed.
“We know.” Everypony present rolled their eyes. 
Fluttershy stepped forward next, “Oh my, why are we going to Mareis in a… portal?”
Applejack replied, “Judging by Pinkie calling it Paris instead of Mareis, Ah’m guessing we’re not going to Mareis, are we? What is this, some sorta alternate universe shenanigan?” A series of affirmatives followed. “Isn’t that gonna be needlessly complicated?”
Twilight shook her head with a groan, “You have no idea.”

Pinkie Pie jittered in place, “OKAY CHARACTER INTROS ARE DONE LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo…”
And with that, she jumped in the portal.

Fluttershy stared after her, “Should we… jump in… or just walk in… or what?”
Rarity flicked her mane, “Fine by me, darling.” And she cantered through. 
One by one, each of the ponies stepped into the alternate world, and Twilight detailed Spike with instructions pensively. “Okay, I want you to let Starlight know that I have no idea how long this might take and that she probably needs to cover for us at school for the next few days. And be sure to get the shiny gold star stickers!”
Spike waved her off, “Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to get the shiny gold star stickers. Now go and save the… alternate world!” He smiled warmly.
Twilight returned it with a smile of her own and they shared a small hug. 
After a nod of determination, she stepped through the blinding light of the portal, ready to see the whole new world that awaited them.





It was a mildly sunny Monday in Paris not too hot, not too chilly, the sun peeking through the clouds. The school building stood in the shadows, the one exception to the otherwise, cautioning all against approaching it. Leftover snow, still melting from that year’s Polar Storm was glistening in the sunlight. The birds were chirping away happily in some tree, but inside the car, the silence was deafening.
“You will be fine, Felix.” 
“I know.” 
“You already have so many friends here.”
“I know.”
“If you need anything at all-”
“-I’ll get the office to call you.  Don’t worry, Mother.” The blond haired boy unfastened his seatbelt then leaned over to kiss Amelie Graham de Vanily on the cheek. He then got out of the car with fluid motion and began to walk away.
“Oh, and Felix.” Amelie called out.
Felix turned around, “Yes?”
“Today is going to be a good day. I just know it” To that Felix just nodded and started to make his way up the surprisingly well maintained set of stairs.
Despite all the reasons Felix could think off to be as pessimistic as possible, his mothers words had had some effect on Felix. As the blond haired boy made his way across the courtyard, following a map of the school to his new classroom, he began to think more positively than he had in a long time.
Hand on the door handle of his classroom, felix thought optimistically that maybe his mother had been right. Maybe it would be a good day afterall.
Felix swung open the door, ready to face whatever he would find inside. 

Anarchy. That was what Felix found inside. The classroom inside was filled with loudly screeching children, and not a teacher in sight. Felix felt the misconceived hope he had felt so strongly a few seconds ago sink down into his stomach. Quietly, Felix made his way to the back of the classroom, hoping against hope nobody had spotted him. Settling down in a seat alone on a bench at the back, Felix slipped a book out of his bag and in the hopes of getting some time reading before he would inevitably have to engage in human interaction.
A hand slammed down on his desk, and Felix looked up unimpressively at a girl with what appeared to be sausages hanging at the side of her face, smiling at him in a sickeningly sweet way. He might have left his analysis of her at that if it hadn’t been for the strange glint in her eyes that hinted at something more behind her apparent persona.
“Hi!” she said. “My name is Lila Rossi. Are you the new kid Mlle Bustier said would be coming in today?”
Three seconds in to meeting a new person, and Felix already didn’t like her. 
“No, I'm Mlle Bustier in disguise,” he deadpanned. 
The girl blinked at him before laughing a tinkly laugh that she probably thought was pretty but Felix just found annoying.
“Can I help you in any way, Mlle Rossi?”
“Who now? Oh, me. No. I was just here to say that book you’re reading? I love it too. It’s one of my absolute favourites, and you know recently I met the author at an audition for the voice of the audio book. William Golding is such an incredible writer.” she gushed.
Felix narrowed his eyes. “If that will be all, Mlle Rossi, please leave so that I may continue reading this book.”
At this quite frankly rude declaration from Felix, Lila’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’m sorry if I did anything wrong,” she said, voice wobbling. “I just wanted to welcome you to our school.”
“No thank you Mlle Rossi. I’m quite fine by myself.”
Lila gave one more upset look at Felix before rushing towards a group of kids huddled around the front of the classroom. As soon as she was among them, she started whispering loudly, and a redheaded girl with a plaid shirt gave him a death glare.
Felix merely rolled his eyes in return. He really couldn’t care less.
“I thought for sure you wouldn’t see through her,” a quiet voice said. Felix turned round to see a girl with dark hair tied neatly up in two pigtails sit next to him.
“It was painfully obvious, only a fool would miss it” Felix scoffed. “Her attempts at deception were barely professional.”
“What was it that gave her away?” the girl asked him, staring imploringly with bluebell eyes.
“She said that she had met the author of my book, William Golding, recently.” he smirked. “William Golding has been dead for over 20 years.”
The girl smirked back; the mischievous twinkle in her eyes somehow preceded a missed beat of his heart. Curious. 
“Oh I didn't introduce myself, how rude. My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” she said.
“Felix Graham de Vanily,” Felix responded, holding out a hand. “As the only person that seems to be capable of basic thought, Mlle Marinette,”
He looked at the rest of the class that was seated around Lila, all seemingly enraptured by her words, in indication.
“Let us be acquaintances.”
She took his hand  tentatively, though when she did his grip was surprisingly firm.
“For 20 years,” Marinette responded with a solemn face, shaking his hand.
They both managed to keep a straight face and maintain eye contact without any signs of humour for all of 2 seconds before they both bursted into a  laughing fit.
It was only after they had wiped the tears from their eyes and controlled their breathing somewhat that they realised the entire class had been staring at them. 
Felix smiled  at her and she smiled back, uncaring.
Maybe his mother had been right. Today just might turn out to be a good day after all.