Author's Note: If you haven't read the other books before this (mainly 'The New Journey' and 'Starting Off') there is a chance that you may not understand everything that you read. Just to warn you...
Adara skipped down Ponyville's main street, smiling as she went. This was her second day in the town, and she was enjoying it very much. Even after only one day of being in Ponyville, Adara was already friendly with the townsponies; as she walked along, she heard people shouting 'Hi Adara!' She loved making friends - it was one of the only things she was really good at. As a child, she was the weird one, with the weird name, and her classmates made fun of her - similar to how Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon made fun of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Adara smiled at this thought. How far she had come since those days when people would yell names at her and she would run crying inside and refuse to come out. Now, she had friends - eight close ones - and they would do anything for her.
"Hi Adara!" Adara looked up. Above her was Derpy Hooves, Ponyville's mail mare. Waving at her, she replied.
"Hi Derpy! How are you?"
The grey pegasus landed next to the unicorn mare. "I'm doing ok. No one's yelled at me yet, so today's going well! What about you?"
"I'm good. Just going for a stroll before Twilight gets up."
Derpy smiled. Adara was so nice; usually ponies would only talk to her to complain about their mail being late or delivered to the wrong person.
"I should probably get back to my rounds before I get yelled at. I'll see you later," Derpy said, taking flight. Adara waved the mail mare off, and looked around.
Ponyville. This town was so special, yet so ordinary. It was so quiet, yet so busy. It was calm and it was also lively. She raised her head and felt the warm summer sun on her neck. She had never before felt so...at peace. She felt as if she could just feel happy forever. Adara knew that she would want to stay here forever. But that may not be possible.
Adara wasn't like most ponies. She may look like them, and act like them, but she definately wasn't from here; she wasn't even from Equestria. Adara, and her friends were actually from another world entirely, and had been brought here by Princess Celestia to help defeat an old foe of hers. You see, Adara nad her friends weren't normal - they were special. They were the Bindings of Hope.
It still felt weird to think that - she had only known that for 2 days. It would take some time to get used to it though, and Adara knew that. She just hoped that she wouldn't have to come to terms with it too soon.
***
Walking down another part of Ponyville's streets was a white unicorn mare. As she walked, she flashed one of her trademark smiles at the townsponies as she walked past them. She immediately heard whispers as she walked. She smiled; she loved the attention. After a while, she flicked her blue and turquoise mane that was obstructing the view of her googles. Being able to see a bit better, she got a better look at her surroundings. Cute, she thought.
"Adara?" she heard. She looked up and saw a grey mare with a yellow mane flying above her. What was weird about this pegasus was that her eyes were looking in different directions.
"I'm sorry," the white unicorn replied. "I don't know who you are talking about."
"Oh." the pegasus mare landed in front of her. "I'm sorry - I thought you were my friend. Are you lost?"
"Oh no. I'm fine." she replied. "But thank you for asking." The unicorn carried on walking forward, leaving the pegasus behind her.
"Wait! Who are you?" she heard her cry.
"Vinyl. Vinyl Scratch."
***
"Tomorrow? A party?" Adara asked her friend Lacey. "Are you serious?! But Skylar might not even be back by then!"
"I know, but then we can have another party when she does come back!" Lacey replied, happily. Adara shook her head; she loved her friend, but sometimes Lacey could be a bit of a handful.
They were standing in the middle of Sugarcube Corner - Adara had come to greet her friend, and Lacey had just announced to her that she was in fact going to be holding a party for all her friends, with the help of Pinkie Pie.
"Lacey, please! Don't. Just wait until Sky gets back from Cloudsdale, then you can throw as many parties as you want," Adara pleaded.
Lacey considered this for a moment, then nodded her head. It wouldn't be fair to throw a party without Skylar being there really, and Lacey didn't want to upset her friend.
"Thank you!" Adara said, throwing her hooves around Lacey's neck. "I'm sure Skylar will want to thank you too, when she comes back." Adara looked at the fuschia pony. "How are you anyway?"
"Oh, I'm fine. It's so nice here - Pinkie's always baking somekind of cake or sweet. Hopefully, soon Mr and Mrs Cake will let me have a job here too. I haven't tried my hand at baking yet, but I can't be that bad, right?"
Adara laughed. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Anyway, I've got to go now." With this, she gave her friend a hug, waved to Pinkie Pie and the Cakes, and departed the shop.
Adara smiled as she walked out - all of her friends could be so random at times, Lacey in particular. Lacey always did remind her of the pink party pony, and it was just funny that they would actually be friends here in Equestria.
Adara looked in front of her, and stopped. She blinked a few times, then, realising that what she was seeing was true, her mouth dropped open.
***
Vinyl Scratch walked around the corner and stopped. She had a feeling that they was someone behind her. Someone important. She turned around to find a grey unicorn staring at her with her mouth open. But that wasn't the strange thing about this pony.
The pony looked exactly like her.