All three of us ran towards the outskirts of town and towards the open lands. I gotta say: the plains were beautiful and the scent of nature was nowhere near as noticeable as back home.
“So, you don’t have any magic?” Sunny ran next to Izzy who just looked back at Sunny with a bright smile.
“Nope!”
Sunny stopped dead in her tracks, catching her breath and sitting down on her haunches, looking at Izzy disbelievingly. Both of us stopped as well, wanting to comfort the obviously distraught Sunny. “Well if it makes you feel any better, we did have it at one point…and then POOF! It was gone. Everypony thinks the pegasi had something to do with it but…” Izzy trailed off.
Sunny got up with a look of loss and confusion plastered on her face. “I’m on the run with a unicorn with no magic and a pegasus who’s actually a bat pony… what’re we gonna do?”
Izzy came up to her and me and began to…sniff the both of us. Perplexed, I asked: “Um, Izzy, what are you doing?” I was going to need an adult sooner rather than later… Wait, I am an adult.
“You two don’t smell.” Sunny replied with a thanks but then she and I just looked at her with bewilderment. “I was told you earth ponies and pegasi-”
“I’m a Thestrial!”
“Oh right! Anyways, I was told you smell like rotten food and fish, not to mention that you are not the brightest crystals in the forest.”
“And what do they say about pegasi, Izzy?” I asked with a bit of regret. If they already saw the earth ponies like that, what would they see the pegasi as? I may not be a pegasus but I do believe that birds of a feather flock together.
“That you were bruts, always scary and that you would eat your young!”
“Charming” Both of us said in unison, thinking exactly that this was beyond gossip. “Alright, so that’s it. We’re gonna go on an adventure! We’re going to zephyr heights!” Sunny presented her journal to us, showing a map of Maretime bay, bridlewood and zephyr heights.
“The pegasus city? But they are bad news.” Izzy said with a bit of worry in her tone. We both gave her a reassuring smile to ease her worries.
“Don’t worry, Izzy! Earth ponies were wrong about unicorns. Maybe unicorns are wrong about pegasi. They could welcome us with open wings!” Sunny assured, believing that it was time to finally meet some actual pegasi.
“Then let's get a move on, ladies! I wanna see this city for myself. Maybe they have some answers which, by the way, I’m still gonna get and maybe you can learn something from me too on the way there, Sunny.” I said happily.
As we traveled through the lands, I couldn’t help but admire the beautiful plains and open, blue skies. I felt so free, so alive in the beautiful lands of spring in Equestria. I wanted to fly off, soar through the skies and explore the many areas this world had to offer me…but first I would stick to the group and learn more about my situation here.
“So, Snow…would you mind if I asked you some things?” Sunny asked as dusk was setting in and the shadows began to grow longer. Looking back, I nodded. She smiled and asked her first question: “Would you mind telling me more about this ‘princess Luna’ and about thestrals?”
“Of course, Sunny! Luna was an alicorn who controlled the night. She and her sister Celestia were supposed to rule together for princess Celestia controlled the sun. As thestrals, we were closer to the night than our fathered brethren. Pledging our loyalty and lives to her, we are eternally grateful for Luna calling us ‘her little ponies‘!“
“Her little ponies?”
“That’s right! Celestia called all the ponies in the land her little ponies but she never cared about us that much. Or at least that’s what we were led to believe. Luna came to us in our dreams, promising us a hopeful future when we were in such a cold and lonely existence. We became Luna's night guards, defending her and protecting the lands during the night.”
“Wow. So Luna must be very important to thestrals.”
“Yes, she is our alicorn goddess of the night.” I said with my hooves pumped out, as if it was a salute to her name. “Then you won’t mind if I ask: where do thestrals live? I know now the unicorns live in bridlewood, the pegasus live in zephyr heights and even earth ponies live in Maretime bay.” Sunny asked while writing some things down in her journal.
“That’s a good question, Sunny!…I have no idea.”
“WHAT?! Then how are you here? No, in fact, why are you here, Snow?”
“That’s a mystery on it’s own. One minute, I was at home, relaxing after another mundane, boring day. The next thing I know, a portal appeared out of nowhere and sent me to Maretime bay!“
“Ok, but that still doesn’t explain why you don’t know where you're from, Snow…”
“She got me there! I could say I have amnesia but then she’ll think I’m making all this stuff up.“ I panicked inside. Then I remembered something. I always enjoyed reading fanfics from the bronies in the fandom, so I’d use one of their head cannons.
“Well, that is actually pretty simple, Sunny. You see, thestrals thrive in the dark, so we prefer living in areas where it’s dark. Most of us live in caves while others live in jungles and arctic lands. I was born in a cave, so I can’t tell you where I'm from because I don’t know where it is on your map!”
“Oh, that does explain some things, I guess. I’m still going to learn more about thestrals though. Maybe they too can be our friends!” Sunny had the most optimistic face I had ever seen when she said that. To be honest, it actually sounds nice. Having thestrals working together with the other 3 tribes, discovering the world they were living in together. I just hoped thestrals were real…otherwise there’d be so many questions about me.
“You learn more about thestrals, I learn more about the land and its history. I think we can discover more than we would’ve thought. Though speaking of history: what’s the story behind the sheriff?”
“You mean Hitch?”
“That’s his name, huh. Well, yeah. Why did he try to arrest me for being a pegasus, even though I’m a freaking bat pony?“
“Oh, he’s always like that. He takes being sheriff way too seriously. But deep down? He is kind and caring. He’s my only friend in Maretime bay.”
“Wait! Why?”
“No pony believes me when I tell them we were friends with the pegasi and unicorns once. They think we’re enemies. Always saying that there was a huge battle between the three races.”
“B-but that doesn’t make any sense! Twilight or the bearers of the elements would’ve tried and stopped them. And the windigos would’ve frozen the lands over until they were nothing but wastelands!”
“Winda what?” Sunny asked with a look of confusion on her face which I have seen so often in the last few hours.
“Nevermind! I have so many questions but I’ll ask them later. We should rest for today. Zephyr Heights is just a few hours away.”
We all decided to sleep a bit early, though I stayed up a little, looking at the mountains with determination.
“I hope the pegasi can give me some more information because this is getting more and more confusing by the second...”
“And you will get them, my friend.”
That voice! It sounded so familiar and close by. When I turned around though, I just looked at Izzy and Suny sleeping.“Maybe I’m more tired than I thought…I should relax a bit more and rest.“ Those were my last thoughts before I drifted into the dreamworld