//------------------------------// // Chapter One: Call of the Error // Story: The Adventures of Princess Erroria // by Secondbestscribe //------------------------------// The music served as a steady background beat, while various ponies danced, ate and chattered. One of those ponies was not much different from everypony else. She was a pegasus, and bore a coat of vanilla, with a wisteria mane and tail, the latter with a light violet stripe. Her eyes were a bright cobalt, and she was chatting easily with another filly. "This party stinks," huffed the vanilla pony to her friend. "I didn't see any sarsaparilla on my way in." "Well, you did come three minutes late," pointed out her companion, a golden-coated earth pony. "You might as well have put up a sign saying 'sarsaparilla here' the day before and waited for Pinkie Pie to realise." The vanilla pony scoffed, and fluttered her wings. "Still. It's not fair. After all, you do know how much I love sarsaparilla, right?" "Who doesn't?" replied the earth pony. "Anyway, Diamond Tiara would've thrown a fit if it hadn't been Pinkie who downed it all. Didja hear that Pinkie planned all this in the first place?" The first filly raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "No... why?" The gold pony shrugged. "Dunno. Guess it's just one of those things when you're friends with everypony." "Diamond Tiara doesn't have any friends," snorted the vanilla filly. "All she's got is Silver Spoon. Snips or Snails would do better!" A bout of giggling was shared between the ponies. The golden-coated one tossed her light-orange mane with the light-amber stripe, and blinked her purple eyes. "Not everypony makes the right deci- " The music stopped. "What the hay?" exclaimed the vanilla pony, looking around. "Noi, what's going on?" "Dunno," replied Noi, blinking. "I didn't do anything, if that's what you mean." Frowning, the vanilla pony grabbed Noi's hoof and led her over to the source of their troubles, which seemed to be down to an earth pony filly with a huge bow. "Check that bow out," hissed the vanilla pony to Noi. "It's insane!" "Alula, shush," hissed back Noi. They watched in sudden horror as Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon began advancing on the filly. Alula bit her lip. "What should we d- " "Nothing!" snarled Noi. "We stand here and do nothing! Who knows what'll happen to us if we intervene? Diamond Tiara'll have our flanks!" Now, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had started on the taunting. "Wooow!" gushed Silver Spoon. "That is an amazing cutie mark." The two bullies began laughing together, high-pitched and annoying. Alula gritted her teeth, and began advancing. "Alula!" Noi yelped, as quietly as she could. "What are you doing?" Diamond Tiara leapt in, eyes flashing evilly. "Nice try!" "BLANK FLANK!" While the bullies giggled and laughed at the filly's expense, murmurs sweeping through the crowd, Alula stepped forward. That was the last time those bullies messed with those without cutie marks! She opened her mouth to yell... "You got a problem with blank flanks?!" Noi uncovered her face. "What? Who..." Two fillies - both with cutie marks, Alula realised - gasped along with the rest and backed away, revealing two ponies huddled underneath the table. They both had eyes justified and angry. The one who had yelled - the bright-orange pegasus with the messy purple mane - spoke again. "I said... you got a problem with blank flanks?!" The two ponies got up, and Alula could now see the other pony clearly. She was a unicorn, alabaster-white, with a curled pink-and-purple mane. Silver Spoon scoffed. "The problem is that's she's, like, totally not special." "No," spoke up the unicorn, trotting to the earth pony's side. "It means she's full of potential!" "It means she could be great at anything!" added the pegasus, going to the earth pony's other side. "The possibilities are, like, endless!" Alula, despite herself with wings flared and hooves splayed, giggled. The imitation of Silver Spoon was pretty good. "She could be a scientist," continued the unicorn, "or an amazing artist, or a famous writer! She could even be mayor of Ponyville someday!" "And she's not stuck being stuck-up like you two!" pointed out the pegasus, shoving a hoof in the bullies' direction. Titters swept through the crowd, much louder than the murmurs from before. Diamond Tiara's face took on an affronted look. "Hey! This is my party, why are you two on her side?!" "Because..." replied the pegasus, and looked at the unicorn. On cue, the two turned so that their flanks were facing out towards the crowd with pride. The earth pony gasped. "You don't have yer cutie marks either?!" she burst out. "Ah thought ah was the only one!" "We thought we were the only two!" came the pegasus' reply. Suddenly, everypony's attention was drawn to the librarian, Twilight Sparkle, walking down to meet them. Noi took advantage of the situation and grabbed Alula's tail, dragging the filly back. "Hey!" snapped Alula. "What gives?" "I for one think you are three very lucky fillies," Twilight was saying. Diamond Tiara's face switched from affronted to downright disgusted, Silver Spoon's quickly following. "Lucky? How can they be lucky?" Twilight met their disgust with irritated disappointment, then confusion, then good humour. "They still get to experience the thrill of discovering who they are! And what they're meant to be!" "And they've got all the time in the world to figure it out," added an orange earth pony. She had freckles and a cowpony hat, and struck Alula's memory as the bearer of the name Applejack. "Not just an afternoon," she added, grinning at the earth pony. The family resemblance struck. "Wow," commented Alula. "What is this, an intervention? Or some sort of stage act?" "Five bits they burst into song," said Noi. Alula grinned. "You're on." While the two turned away, a crowd began to form around the three blank flanks. Alula's ear twitched, and her grin grew wider. "Nope! Don't hear any singing." Noi pouted. "Great. Now I'm five bits poorer." Alula laughed as they took seats away from the crowd, then let the humour fall from her face. "Say, Noi, what was with that stuff before?" "What stuff?" asked Noi innocently. "All that 'get back here' stuff. I was going to totally kick those bullying butts!" Noi blinked, then shrugged over-casually. "Well, those two fillies sorted it out anyway." Alula resisted the sudden urge to slam her hoof down on the table. "Yeah, but what if they hadn't?!" Noi shrugged, then looked over at a table nearby them. There, the three blank flanks were seated, chatting animatedly together. She watched as one - the pegasus - raised her hoof. Her tail swayed, briefly obscuring her left blank flank. Somehow, this went to highlight her lack of cutie mark - but abundance of potentiality. Noi suppressed a sigh, and instead looked downwards to her own flank, which was adorned with the picture of a magnifying glass. Her special talent... finding things. "Hello?" came Alula's voice. "Hell-ooo? Equestria to Noi, come in Noi!" "Hunh? Whah?" Noi looked around wildly. "You spaced out on me," explained Alula, evidently amused. "Am I that boring?" Noi rubbed her forehead. Inexplicably, she was suddenly suffering from a painful headache. She shook her head. "No, it's just... ow, my head..." Alula looked concerned. "Are you okay? Do you want me to walk you home or something?" Noi shook her head again. Her temples throbbed achingly. "Ack... actually, yeah..." She tried to get off her seat, but simply stumbled. Immediately, Alula flew to her side, supporting her. "Oh, Celestia, this headache's terrible," groaned Noi. "Don't worry, we'll get you to Nurse Redheart - " Alula outstretched a wing comfortingly, pulling Noi close and secure. Noi let out a yell, and collapsed.