//------------------------------// // The Beginning // Story: Times Are Changing // by Pinkieshy //------------------------------// Chapter 1 Ponyville from the night sky above is a quiet series of odd buildings and thatched cottages with poorly planned streets that end in dangerous cliffsides. The Luna’s night sky was star-ridden unintentionally giving an ominous feel like in some B rated horror film. The air was thick and cold as a puddle of water on the ground holds the diamonds above in its surface. The water’s reflection abruptly changes as an unknown pony's grim face pass above it. The blue eyes of the mysterious pony are bright in contrast to the dark night. "I spent so little time with you, but…you mean the world to me," said the mysterious white coated pony to the woven basket that sat on her back. She was carrying a very precious cargo a single tear formed in her eye from the realization that this could be her last time she would see them ever again. The mysterious pony lifted the basket with a soft glow of gray magic, inside the basket stirred the colt curled up onto the doorstep of a wooden house. She took one last long look over her beloved pony and took her leave. The colt was in a deep sleep and as the mysterious pony took her leave she quickly tacked a single note upon the candle image that marked the door of Ponyville’s only library. The night passed onward with the colt lying snuggled in the basket sleeping soundly. Celestia’s sun rose the next day with the bright rays entering through Twilight's bedroom window and brought the usually late sleeper to her senses early. She noticed Spike was sleeping in his basket at the bottom of her bed. "R-rarity's plot," mumbled Spike in his sleep as he moves slightly to fix himself into a more comfortable position. Twilight’s face turned to disgust as she heard the words mumbled from her dragon friend. She lifted herself out from under her covers and out of the clean bed mattress. She decided that despite her disappointment with Spike's perversion she would let him to continue to sleep as she would go find herself some breakfast. Her legs felt a bit weak in the morning as she trotted down her steps and into the kitchen. Twilight remembered that she was given some delicious apples by Applejack and decided it would make for a good breakfast. She searched her cabinet and pulled out one the luscious looking apples from the bag she bought them in and took a bite. Twilight's ears perked up when she heard some high pitched whining coming from right outside her door. She wondered if it was Rarity for one second when she realized that it was too high pitched for her. She wondered if it was another of Pinkie and Rainbow Dash’s pranks, as of late they had been playing an unusual number of pranks on her. As she contemplated what was going to be on the other side of the door she reached out with her magic the purplish aura surrounding the door as it swung open. She was greeted by the sight of a young beautiful blonde maned unicorn pony with a night blue coat. With another moan he opened his large blue eyes staring up at her from his basket bed. "I'm hungry," he moaned as anyone in the radius could hear his stomach letting out noises backing up his words. Twilight stood rooted to the spot wondering what to do. She had yet to read anything about abandonded colts being left on library steps. Furthermore her daily schedule would no doubt be sent awry and her checklist would need updating… The torrent of thoughts the obsessive compulsive pony detailed came to an abrupt stop when the colt’s stomach gave a loud enough growl to awaken her from her stress induced mental spiral. Twilight then decided to do what Rarity would have and graciously let the young colt in and gave him some of the apples that Applejack provided her. "Well so much for breakfast," she mumbled as she noticed that the young colt had managed to consume almost the entire bag of apples that were given to her levitating a series of apples over to his mouth as he consumed them with ravenous delight. “Ahem,” said Twilight with a smile remembering Fancypants Senior’s Guide to Etiquette, “My name is Twilight Sparkle, what is your name?" asked Twilight. "M-my name is Luckystars," said the young unicorn colt, his stuttering indicating his intense nervousness. For some reason Twilight was reminded of the time she first met Fluttershy. Except this time she felt herself blushing at the cuteness of Luckystars. "So what are you doing here?" asked Twilight in wonderment. She needed to get to the bottom of what was going on. It seem very odd for a pony to show up this early on her doorstep in a basket. If anything it seemed unlikely that he was here to check out a book. "I-I don't remember much about myself. My head hurts." "Could it be you suffered a recent injury to your head?" asked Twilight. "I'm not sure," responded Luckystars. "Well for the time being you can stay with me," she said. His face lit up with excitement and made Twilight blush even more. She looked to the side to see a disgruntled dragon come down the stairs. "Um how long have you been here Spike?" "Long enough to know what is going on," stated Spike in a stern tone. Luckystars seem to be listening intently on every word said by the two of the other ponies. "So what is your name?" he asked quietly of the dragon. "Oh how forgetful of me. This is Spike," said Twilight in a delightful tone. Twilight looked over Luckystars and for the first time she noticed his cutie mark. A look of shock came on her face as his mark resembled something she had seen before in one of her books. I need to look over my books and try and remember where I've seen that mark before, thought Twilight. The mark that is on Luckystars was three yellow stars conjoined with each other. It would appear to be a normal cutie mark except his symbol was a rather rare occurance among ponies. "Twilight and Spike I just remembered something I think…" stated Luckystars a look of sadness passing over his face "What?" both Spike and Twilight asked simultaneously. "I remember some pony dying”