//------------------------------// // 4 - Sunny's Favorite Spot // Story: Sunny Starscout and The Mystery of Magic // by OneLonelyPickle //------------------------------// Sunny and Izzy were mid-trek through the Horseshoe Wood. The Earth Pony had a wide smile on her face, there was a jump in her step, and she hummed a tune. Izzy followed with her head on a swivel, admiring the scenery around them. Horseshoe Wood was brightly lit, thanks to the sun pouring through the gaps in the canopy of leaves above. Its trees were solid maples, tall and thick with brown, lichen-covered bark. Bushy ferns jutted out of the soil all over the place, but a mostly clear path led the mares in a certain direction that seemed to be going uphill. The high-pitched clicking of cicadas filled the summer air. “Wow, this is nothing like Sire’s Hollow, or anywhere close by!” Izzy remarked with a voice as joyful as her face. “It’s like something out of an old pony’s tale! A fantasy forest!” Sunny looked back for a second with an incredulous smile. “Haha, what? This is the most basic wood in all of the Realm — I mean, I imagine it is. I haven’t exactly been outside of Maretime Bay. I’m sure you Unicorns have all sorts of fantasy forests where you’re from!” Izzy shook her head. “That’s not true. All I can remember is the woods being full of dead trees and owls with really, really creepy hoots. Sort of like the other kind of old pony’s tale.” Izzy lowered her head, and her voice became a whisper. “The scary kind.” The path through Horseshoe Wood became steeper and steeper until Izzy and Sunny were practically climbing up the side of a hill to continue. “Oh right,” Sunny suddenly asked, “You haven’t told me your family’s name yet. Or did you forget it?” Izzy was huffing and puffing trying to keep up with Sunny, who deftly and quickly crested the hill. Izzy practically panted her response. “F-family… name…?” Sunny nodded, glancing down from the top of the hill. “Yeah! You have a Cutie Mark so your family must have a name. But I guess you forgot about that aspect of Equestria since you sound unsure.” Izzy clambered to the top finally and flopped down on her belly. Her mane was all frazzled. There was no room in her lungs to muster a response. Sunny chuckled. “It’s fine, take your time. I like your Cutie Mark. The heart with the button in the middle, it’s cool.” She took another glance at Izzy’s flank. “But… I don’t know what’s up with the three nail thingies on the side.” Izzy’s back went up and down as her breathing regulated. She turned onto her back and sighed. Sunny hid her smile behind a hoof. “And you REALLY aren’t used to this sort of hiking thing, aren’t you?” Izzy blushed and looked away. She cleared her throat and jumped back onto her four hooves. “I can’t remember about my… Cutie Mark. I’m sorry. Or my family’s name. Yours is nice, too. The Cutie Mark, I mean.” She pointed at Sunny’s, and the owner of the Mark put her hoof to her heart and closed her eyes. “Thank you. I’m proud to hold the Cutie Mark of the Starscout family. Blue trail and three magenta stars — Ah!” Sunny stopped midsentence and ran away. Izzy noticed that they were now on an open area of grass and shrubs. Further beyond it was clear that the area overlooked the sea, and as Izzy chased after Sunny and got close enough to the middle of the clearing, she noticed they were on a cliff overlooking the water on the other side of the Bay. Sunny waved her hoof behind her and stopped in front of two slabs of stone sticking out of the ground. Izzy came after her. “Come see this! This is my favorite spot!” Izzy sat beside Sunny and looked at where she was pointing. On the front of each weather-worn and salt-damaged stone slab was an indentation of Sunny’s Cutie Mark. A trail and three stars. A mound of dirt was carefully molded in front of each slab. Izzy hummed sadly. “Oh…” she said quietly. Sunny, however, was all smiles. “Izzy, meet mom and dad! Not much for talking anymore, but they have the best view in Maretime Bay, so that’s got to count for something!” The cries of wayward gulls and the crashing of the tide against the cliff wall below filled the silence. Izzy adjusted her sunhat and ran her hoof around some locks of her sapphire mane. She looked over at Sunny, who didn’t seem even as remotely sad as the Unicorn herself. Instead, Sunny flopped onto her back and looked at the sky. Izzy followed suit. “I’m sorry,” was all Izzy said. Sunny giggled. “It’s fine. They’ve been gone since I was a filly. I’m used to it now! I’ve never really truly been alone, anyway.” Sunny rested her hooves behind her head. “Soon after mom and dad got lost at sea, Professor Tyson was selected to take over the maintenance of the town observatory. The Starscout family was always in charge of it, but the townsponies said I was too young, so the Professor took over instead. He always loved the stars and the planets as much as my parents, and spent as much time there as they did when they weren’t on the boat, so it was the best thing ever!” She continued, “The Professor is sort of like my second dad, I guess, but — well…” Sunny nibbled her lip and she wiggled her lower hooves until they dug into the dirt and pushed away a small pile. She looked over at Izzy and covered his mouth with her forehooves “I-It’s nothing!” she stammered. Izzy smiled wide not knowing what to say. Sunny changed the subject. “H-How about you? Tell me more about your family, Izzy! You said you had a brother too? I don’t have any brothers or sisters, so you’re pretty lucky!” Izzy hummed in thought and closed her eyes, feeling the calm of the warm, summer air wash over her. The smell of salt in the air was starting to become familiar and relaxing. “I can’t remember his face or his name… sorry. It’s weird. I can see him as a colt, and I remember him being so nice. We were pretty close. But I don’t remember anything about the current him.” She smiled. “But I do remember what my parents are like! They’re really, really kind — maybe too kind. We’ve all always been so close.” Izzy hugged herself with her hooves and rocked back and forth. “It makes me feel thump thump.” Sunny raised an eyebrow. “Thump… thump?” Izzy blushed, rubbing her belly with her hooves. “W-well, my parents and I use words like that to describe certain feelings… thump thump is when you’re so happy and feel so loved that your heart goes thump thump… haha.” Sunny laughed, turned over to face Izzy, and sat up halfway with her hoof keeping her aloft. Her long ponytail flopped around. “That’s cute! You’re like a little doll or something, y’know that?” Izzy blinked a few times. Her mouth was an O. “What do you mean by that?” she asked curiously. Sunny rolled her eyes with another chuckle. “Nothing, haha. So, what do your folks do? My mom and dad were sea astronomers! They sailed on the wide-open seas, tracking the paths of the stars and the planets and figuring out the best way to navigate with only the sky to guide you!” Izzy sat up, face aglow, and turned toward Sunny, also hoisting herself up with a hoof. Sunny continued. “It was their dream to one day travel all around the world and see all the different types of ponies! They always believed that we could come together and unite, all three pony races!” Izzy’s ears flicked and twitched and her tail started to swish. “Wow! That sounds so cool, Sunny! My parents are just boring old diplomats.” Izzy frowned. “Mostly, it’s a ceremonial position, if you ask me. The Voice of the Five Tribes runs Unicornia with a pretty heavy hoof, and as you can probably guess Unicorns aren’t exactly friends with any of the other two pony races, so diplomats aren’t really needed.” Sunny beamed. “Not yet! They haven’t got a load of me yet!” She jumped to her four hooves and thrust one of them against her chest. “I can be very convincing, you know!” Izzy stood up as well. “Is that so?” she asked. Sunny nodded. “You haven’t heard any of my speeches yet, but you will! I’m going to go give one in the market later! And—” Sunny winked. “I’d like your help, if you would.” Izzy gave a closed-eye smile and nodded. The two agreed it was best to head back to town to make preparations. While Izzy carefully stepped down the hill back into the wood, she asked Sunny a question. “Umm, by the way, that old stallion from before… who was he?” Sunny laughed a single laugh and replied. “That was Old Man Withers. He’s older than the trees, seriously. He’s obsessed with the past and old legends. He seriously believes that there’s a Sun Goddess that lives in the sun, and I think he even mentioned a Moon Goddess once! Crazy, huh?” Izzy grew quiet and hummed to herself in thought. “Right… crazy…” A distant memory tickled the inside of Izzy’s brain. A dark shadow, unclear to her mind’s eye, lurked. The two continued on the path back to Maretime Bay. * * * “THE THREE PONY RACES MUST COME TOGETHER!” Sunny stood on a small box beside the statue of Rockhoof. She held up her hoof and matched the statue’s pose, only she did not hold a large shovel between her teeth like the Earth Pony demi-god of legend. “THE TIME IS NOW FOR UNITY! FOR ACTION! WE FEAR THE UNKNOWN BECAUSE WE DON’T KNOW ANY BETTER!” Beside her, Izzy held a poster attached to a pole. She was shaking like a leaf and mostly hiding behind it. It read, “Stand for a brighter tomorrow today!” in big, messy red paint letters, and various, crude stick drawings of what a five-year-old would call Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth Ponies held hooves. Sunny shook her hoof with gusto toward the crowd, her brow sharply creased in fervor. “COME ON! SAY IT WITH ME, EVERYPONY: WE CAN CHANGE! EVERYPONY CAN CHANGE! WE CAN MAKE EQUESTRIA A BETTER PLACE FOR EVERYPONY!” Somepony in the crowd yelled. “It’s everyearthpony, you nutbar!” A few ponies laughed in response. Others hurried on their way, obviously not comfortable with the profanity they were hearing. Others stared at Sunny with silent hatred. The merchants, however, were used to ignoring Sunny, as it was the best way to avoid losing any more business than normal. The Maretime Bay market saw travelers from across the Realm of the Earth Ponies. Many of them were not aware of Sunny Starscout and her, what most ponies called, “performances” before their first visits, but none of them forgot afterward. Sunny continued and spat back at her hecklers. “WE CAN MAKE IT “EVERYPONY”! LANGUAGE IS AN IMPORTANT TOOL FOR IMPROVING OUR SOCIETY! INSTEAD OF WORDS LIKE EVERYEARTHPONY, SAY EVERYPONY! INSTEAD OF HORNHEAD, SAY UNICORN!” Sunny leaned down to Izzy and whispered, “No offence.” Izzy just smiled awkwardly and moved her poster around. At one end of the market, Amos the merchant was watching the mares with an eagle’s gaze. Experienced as he was at commercialism, it was no hard task to tend his shop while keeping an eye on the suspicious new comer that was Izzy. Ponies in the crowd started to boo. Sunny noticed the usual suspects: her fellow students from school. At least, when they all used to be in school. Sunny was glad those years were behind her. Only, the worst part of them continued as if nothing had ever changed. “Why don’t you just move to Unicornia or the Cloudlands if you love those other ponies so much!” one of them yelled. Sunny recognized the voice. Tamara. She always loved to pull Sunny’s ponytail and make her squeal. But Sunny always gave as good as she got. A stallion whose voice was clear to Sunny roared. “Go back to your little telescope thing and leave the rest of us alone! That’s what your family’s job is! Go look at the sky, Starscout!” It was the voice of Hector. Tough stallion. Used to lose to Sunny at track and field all the time. Sunny glanced at her old classmates only briefly. A group of five, whoever had the luck of having the day off from town duties. Other days it was other students. No doubt their parents had encouraged their counterprotests. Their faces were vicious, snouts pulled up in disgust, brows arranged into sharp Vs. It was par for the course. Sunny frowned for only a moment before resuming her normal demeanor. “SAY WHAT YOU WANT! I KNOW THAT YOU’LL ALL UNDERSTAND ONE DAY! WE JUST NEED TO TRY! WHAT DO YOU SAY? LET’S GIVE UNITY A TRY, EVERYPONY!” A rush of noise replied from the crowd. “EVERYEARTHPONY!” Izzy adjusted her floral-patterned sunhat and gulped. There was never a time she was happier to be going incognito as an Earth Pony. An old stallion busted a gut laughing off to the side, and Sunny turned to see who it was. Old Man Withers. He was munching on peanuts from a bag as he leaned against Rockhoof’s fountain. Clearly, he got a kick out of the entertainment. “You!” Sunny hissed, pointing a hoof at the eldest of Maretime Bay’s inhabitants. “You’re the last pony I need to see right now! Can’t you see I’m busy?!” Withers chuckled. “By alllllllll means, Sunny Starscout, don’t let ME rain on your parade, ehhh?” He cleared his throat in a gross old stallion sort of way and smiled. Sunny pouted and turned back to the crowd. Somewhere out in the mass of ponies a tomato soared through the air and landed on Sunny’s muzzle, showering her face with red mush. The crowd laughed. Sunny’s ear and eye twitched. Izzy took cover. “Throw a few more!” somepony shouted. Sunny licked her snout and smiled. “Delicious! Haven’t had a tomato in forever! Thanks!” She rose a triumphant hoof once more and shouted in defiance at the crowd. “YOU CAN’T STOP ME WITH YOUR TOMATOES! YOU COULDN’T STOP ME WITH POTATOES OR RADISHES EITHER!” She leaned back down and whispered to Izzy again, “Could stop me with some stone squash, but let’s not give ‘em any ideas!” Izzy laughed nervously. The crowd was booing again. The afternoon dragged on (very, very slowly, from Izzy’s perspective). The travelers and locals came and went, entering the wide market area surrounding Rockhoof’s statute with empty saddlebags, and usually leaving with full bags bursting at the seams. Despite the disturbance of Sunny, most of the merchants left with chests full of bits. Eventually, as was always the case, the crowds of counterprotestors gathered around Sunny dwindled to zero. None could match her perseverance. By the time orange light was covering the market, she was still standing on her box beside the Rockhoof statue, hoof and head held high. “DON’T FORGET! I’M HERE ALMOST EVERY DAY!” Sunny shouted to a barren market. “LET’S COMMIT TO A BETTER TOMORROW, EVERYPONY!” She hopped down, her mane just barely showing the signs of a long day. The odd piece of hair popped up on it, but mostly it looked the same as usual. Sunny’s face, however, was dirty when she looked at her reflection in the fountain. She looked back at Izzy and secretly cursed her Unicorn friend, whose face was immaculate and shining bright in the orange glow of sunset. Sunny sighed happily. “Another day, another successful speech, I’d say!” Izzy’s eyelids were going up and down rapidly as she tried to stay awake. She mumbled a response. “Sorry… if my poster holding was… bad.” Izzy’s ears and hooves drooped, as did the poster. Sunny smacked her on the shoulder with a wide grin. “Ya did great! As good as me! I have to say, my idea to use the poster was top notch! And the whole everypony thing? That’s a keeper!” Sunny turned away and closed her eyes. She breathed in then exhaled. She turned back to Izzy, just as happy as before. “I really feel like I’m winning over the ponies here, slowly but surely, you know?” The corner of Izzy’s mouth twitched. “Y-you think so, huh?” Sunny ‘mhm’d!’ cheerfully and she broke off toward home. “Come on! Let’s get back before it gets dark!” Izzy nodded and followed after. Just as she approached the edge of the market, a pony standing on the side of the market whistled at her. “Hey. Earth Pony,” the pony said. Izzy turned, instantly worried because of the tone. It turned out to be Old Man Withers, smiling. Izzy cocked her head. “Y-Yes?” she nervously questioned. Old Man Withers looked her right in the eyes. “She’s special, that Sunny Starscout. I’ve been around here for a long time. Her parents were special, too — the whole family, really. You keep an eye on her from now on, okay?” Izzy frowned. “What are you talking about?” Old Man Withers turned around and walked down an alley. “Fate works in the strangest ways, young ‘Izzy’. Cute nickname, by the way.” Izzy’s ears struck right up and she took a step back. “W-who are you?” she asked the departing figure. He stopped and turned halfway. “Ehhh, don’t worry about it. My time’s almost passed. Also, something about you reminds me of somepony I knew a long time ago. It’s refreshing. So, thank you.” Withers made a pleasant grunting noise from his throat. He turned away with a chuckle and disappeared into the alley. Izzy stared, her mind racing to decipher fifteen mysteries at once. She was broken out of her trance by the shouting voice of Sunny in the distance “HEYYY! IZZY! YOU GONNA SLEEP OUTSIDE OR SOMETHING?” Izzy shook her head and followed after. “C-coming!” * * * Sometime later, many miles to the north, at Castle Rockhoof… A single page, no older than thirteen, ran with all his strength up the mighty, winding path that led to the eastern gatehouse of Castle Rockhoof. Tall torches along the path lit the way right up to the top. The top of the castle walls was also lit, though it was so far away from the page that the fires seemed like mere twinkles. He could never get over just how high the stone walls stood. Two imposing Earth Pony guards, encrusted in stone plate armor and helmets, stood emotionless and stoic in front of the metal gate. “Halt, who goes there?” one asked the page. The page took a moment to catch his breath and held out a hoof as if to ask for time to recover. The other guard snorted. “Out with it, colt!” The page swallowed hard. “An urgent message from the south! There are reports of a rabblerouser spreading propaganda about Hornheads and Featherfreaks!” The two guards exchanged a glance then nodded. One of them whistled an intricate pattern of sounds and a moment later the portcullis of the gatehouse slowly rose out of the ground with a groaning of metal. Clumps of dirt fell from the sharp spikes at the base of the gate. The page bowed to the guards and thanked them before rushing inside. The page could scarcely stay focused to his tasks every time he journeyed to the Castle. The awe-inspiring, intricately painted stone statues of Earth Pony champions that lined the path to the keep inside the eastern bailey, illuminated by great, flaming cauldrons that also lined the path, engulfed the page’s vision. He smiled as he took in as much as he could while his hooves carried him at a fierce trot toward the eastern keep. Red fire danced and crackled about wherever he looked, casting moving shadows all around the bailey. At the huge double doors that led to the inner keep, the page once again stopped to catch his breath. This time, a single guard was stationed at a guard station that was only as big and wide as a single stallion. A torch on the wall behind him lit up the back of his body, but the page couldn’t see his face. “Yes, what is it? It’s late,” the guard asked with a yawn at the end. The page saluted. “It’s Nate Chivaltarry, sir. Page to the Protector’s Left Hoof. He’ll want to hear my report, right away!” The guard grunted. “You mad? He’s most likely asleep and he’ll be up early for his trip to collect the newest batch of traitors and prisoners. I’m not going to be the one to wake him!” The page pleaded with wide eyes and a desperate voice. “But you don’t understand! I know my master! He will want to hear this, now and not later! Let me go to him, if you don’t want to!” The guard sighed and rolled his eyes. He clopped his hoof against a hard stone three times. The double doors to the keep slowly opened. “Fine. It’s your funeral,” the guard said, bored and turning away. The page stood up straight and marched inside.