“Where are you taking me, Warp?” Dream Magic sighed. The brown stallion turned to her, blue eyes dancing with laughter.
“Its a surprise, Dreamy.”
Dream Magic frowned. She barely even knew this pony, yet she was following him through the rain, which was thoroughly soaking her coat.
“What if I hate surprises?” She asked grudgingly. Time Warp chuckled.
“I promise you’ll like this one.” Dream Magic scoffed but didn’t reply as she followed the stallion down the dusty path.
“You’re leading me down to the middle of nowhere. What could be so important in the middle of a forest?”
“What did I tell you? The point of a surprise is the surprise, Dreams.” He shook his head exasperatedly, as if he was trying to explain to a filly she had to wait to get her cutie mark.
“This was a bad idea, my mom will be worried about me and-” Time Warp cut her off.
“Its going to be fine, and if you're so worried about it, I’ll walk you home and explain to your mother that I invited you over to hang out, and apologize on your behalf that I kept you out so late.” Dream Magic smiled at him.
“Please don’t. My entire life, Shimmer was my one real friend, and if you take one step into my house, my mother will have a field day with you.”
“Parents love me.”
“That’s what I’m worried about.” Dream muttered under her breath. Time nudged her playfully and nodded his head to a shack nested between some trees.
“You brought me all the way out here to see a shack!” Dream gasped in annoyance. “I could be curled up next to a warm fire listening to Mother and Father’s amusing quips and stories while eating mother’s amazing cooking! But instead you brought me all the way out here in the pouring rain to-”
“Its not the shack, Dreamy, it's what’s in the shack!” Time Warp laughed as they trotted up to the old wooden door.
“What are you talking about-” Dream Magic cut herself off when Time Warp swung the door open, calling out-
“Time Warp had arrived! And he brings an extra special guest!” The door opened and light poured in from the inside. Dream Magic swallowed nervously, in front of her stood five unicorn ponies who stared at her in a mixture of confusement and excitement.
‘What did I get myself into’? Dream thought to herself.
Two ponies were whispering silently to each other. One had a pale orange coat, with red and white uneven bob style mane and rose colored eyes, on her flank was a pencil that appeared to be sketching a heart.. Next to her stood a pony with white coat, a long white and red streaked mane and light pink eyes, with a paint brush, with slight sparkles surrounding it as her destiny mark.
A lavender colored unicorn looked at her coldly with dark purple eyes. She had a long violet mane, with a theater tragedy and comedy masks as her cutie mark. Suddenly, a white pony with a wild pink mane and tail, and a three pink star cutie mark bounded up to her, light blue eyes wide as she opened her mouth to speak.
“Wow! What’s an earth pony like you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with an earth pony colony? Unless you're that one pathetic earth pony filly I heard about that was taken pity on and adopted by two unicorns. If that’s the case, I can’t believe they let a pony like you just live in our society, I wonder if your adoptive parents made a deal with our leader? Speaking of parents, what do you think happened to your real ones? Was there something wrong with you so they left you to die in the cold winter’s snow? Did you call for help? Have you ever tried to find them? Do your unicorn parents ever talk about how they found you? Do they treat you as an equal, or don't they remind you that you're not a unicorn, not magical, not-”
She was cut of as an apple jammed its way into her mouth, courtesy of a bright blue magic. A black stallion walked up, he had an elegant dark blue mane, and kind dark brown eyes. With a magnifying glass as his cutie mark.He turned to the white mare.
‘Hush now Lucky Chant, no need to scare this poor pony away.’ A warm voice filled Dream Magic’s head and blue magic sparked from the black stallion’s horn.
“Is that you?” Dream Magic asked. The stallion nodded, mouth never moving. She heard the voice again.
‘I was born without the ability to speak, so I learned to use magic to communicate my thoughts, and I apologize on the behalf of my eccentric marefriend Lucky Chant, she has much trouble keeping certain thoughts to herself. My name is Tacitus, but most of my friends call me Taci. I’ve heard many great things about you Dream Magic. It's a pleasure to meet you.’
“The pleasure is all mine...” Dream forced a smile, not sure what to think. Lucky Chant swallowed her last bit of apple, before jumping straight back into the conversation.
“Sorry if I offended you! I didn’t mean it! You seem like a nice pony, but then again, I don’t know anything about you, for all I know you could be a secret agent from the earth pony colonies sent to discover all the unicorn secrets which you will use to destroy us all-” She was silenced once again, this time with a pear.
‘She is also a bit of a conspiracy theorist.’ Taci’s voice sighed in Dream’s head. Time Warp trotted up next to her, a smile on his face.
“You seem a bit overwhelmed. Let me explain. This is the club of freaks among the unicorn world.” He exclaimed cheerfully, as if he wasn’t insulting everypony in the room. “You see, everypony in this room has something that’s different about them that deems them ‘freaks’ or ‘losers’ or, my personal favorite, ‘a waste of unicorn air’.
“Taci there, as you know, can’t speak. Meeting Lucky Chant is enough to know she has trouble keeping any thought to herself.” Dream nodded dumbly before taking a seat on a long wooden at the side of the shack. She looked around at the other ponies, whose faces suddenly turned shocked and amused. The white pony with the long white and red streaked mane trotted up to her, pink eyes narrowed.
“What do you think you're doing?” She asked coldly.
“I-I’m-” Dream Magic stammered.
“You're in my spot.” She stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Excuse me?” Dream asked, slightly confused.
“I sit in that spot every day. It’s my spot!”
“But I-”
“Move!”
“I’m sorry” Dream muttered quickly evacuating the seat this pony deemed her spot. The pale orange pony next to the white mare smiled apologetically.
“I’m sorry about that. My sister, Prism Bend, can be a bit particular about certain things. Where she sits, what she eats, how you talk, where specific items belong, and she can be a bit erm, harsh when trying to explain her, preferences. So most ponies don’t like her, which is why she is here, and... I’m sorry, but do you mind if I draw you?” The pony suddenly asked. Her rose colored eyes shining as she suddenly drew out a sketch pad. Using her red magic she lifted a pencil from her saddle bag and started drawing, glancing up to stare at Dream Magic every once in awhile. Warp chuckled heartily before over to Dream.
“Those are the twins, Quick Sketch and Prism Bend. Sketch already explained her sister’s erm... problem. As you can see, Sketch loves to draw anything and everything. Most of the time she doesn't even ask permission, she just pulls out her sketch pad and starts staring at you, making sure her sketch is nothing less than exact, it can get a bit uncomfortable.”
“And who is that mare over there?” Dream whispered shyly, glancing over to the lavender pony. Time Warp smiled.
“That’s Divine Star, but if you call her that she’ll have your head on a platter. Just stick with calling her Star or Starry. She can be a bit cold at first, but she’ll warm up to you in due time.”
“She seems so normal. No offense, but why is she here?” Dream asked, looking at the mare. Time Warp gulped nervously.
“Well you see, she um....”
“I’m a fillyfooler.” Divine Star stated angrily.
“You’re a what?”
“I like mares.” Star clarified.
“If you got a problem with that you should just-”
“I don’t, I know how it feels to be different, so I won’t judge you. I’m actually happy you're able to be so proud about it.” Dream decided, looking at the mare. She looked surprised. She gave a small smile before she added:
“Good.”
“So what do you guys think? Should we let her join?” Time Warp smirked, looking at the group.
“She is such a fun pony to draw! All I’ve ever drawn is unicorns! I’d love to have her here.” Sketch smiled.
“As long as she keeps out of my spot.” Prism muttered.
“Ohmygosh! A new pony! This is so exciting! I just hope she isn’t a disappointment or that she doesn't-”
“It would be foolish not to let her join.”
“An earth pony? It can’t make this circus any worse.” Divine smirked.
“What are you ponies talking about?” Dream burst. Time Warp smiled at her.
“How would you like to be apart of our little band of freaks?”
“You mean...You want me to be apart of your group?”
“It’d be foolish not to invite you.” Taci’s warm voice filled her head.
“Of course! You're an earth pony in a unicorn society. If you don’t belong with us losers, you don’t belong anywhere.” Sketch joked.
“So will you join?” Time Warp asked. Dream Magic didn’t even hesitate.
“I will.” The ponies around her erupted in excitement.
“Ohmygosh!Ohmygosh!Ohmygosh! We have a new member! This is so exciting! I wonder if we can trust her...”
“Its a privilege and an honour to have you as part of our little group.”
“I’ll need more pencils...”
“Another pony to get use to the presence of...This will take some major re-adjustment.”
“At least she accepts me for liking mares. It took the rest of you days to get used to the idea.” Dream Magic suddenly felt bothered. She turned to Time Warp, a question burning her mind.
“Why are you in this group?” Time looked suddenly panicked as Lucky Chant opened her mouth.
“Ooooh that’s easy. Time Warp can’t-”
“Pony Pile!” Time suddenly screeched, leaping onto poor Luck Chant. He was immediately followed by Quick Sketch, Prism Bend, and Tacitus. Dream looked baffled at the group as they laughed and tussled, when Divine Star appeared beside her smirking, offering her her hoof. Dream shook it kindly as Star smirked at her.
“Welcome to the island of misfit toys.”