It all started with a bright light, slowly a horned foal floated down to a grassy plain being overlooked by two shadows. One licked her head making her giggle. The foal stood up and started walking across the grasslands to explore the world.
After a while the foal started to age, a cookie ran at the foal with a spear made out of a pretzel stick. The foal bit into the pretzel stick and before the oatmeal cookie could run it was grabbed by the foal. Half its head disappeared into the gaping maw.
Yawning the foal stood up again and started walking down the path, it was aging more as it went only stopping to playfully gallop with a third shadow that watched over it. After a bit of fun the foal took a nap for a minute.
Waking up the foal was placed before others like it and they weren’t very nice foals, slowly the foal grew distant from them and closer to the three shadows that were coming more and more into focus.
The foal slowly became a young well loved, but still relatively friendless, filly. One day her parents dragged her to the summer sun celebration in Canterlot to get her out of the house to see the world that was passing her by. The sun shined brightly obscuring the view of the filly.
The filly was slightly older now and in a library, she picked up books on her own. Her parents silently watching over her as she picked out books herself, soon they left her to her own devices.
As the filly started talking to the librarian a flash appeared on her flank revealing a large star with a smattering of smaller stars. She walked out of the building stepping back onto the grassy road, completely enamored with what was written in the book.
The filly stopped when she felt her leg hit something, the filly had come upon an egg. She looked at it questioningly; an exploding rainbow obscured view of the filly.
The filly was once again walking down the grassy road again slowly aging like always; she now had a companion crawling behind her whom of which she slowed down for.
After a while of traveling the companion started crying and the filly stopped, she reach into her little saddlebags and pulled out a doll and set it upon the ground.
The doll slowly got up and started walking down the road on its own, slowly transforming into a wingless pixie as it went. It made sure to entertain the companion so that the road was more fun for her.
They all continued down the road together. After a while the companion got up on her two hind legs to start walking, the pixie sprouted wings and started flying around her. The little filly had become a young mare.
Along the grassy road the young mare stopped to smell some flowers, while her companion and the pixie ran ahead. She caught up with the two after passing a small market stall where a blonde pony sat reading a comic book and eating a muffin.
The companion was reading something and the young mare quickly threw her companion aside as a vortex appeared from the comic book trying to suck her in. The young mare disappeared from the grassy road, leaving behind two sad travelers.
The young mare found herself in a forest where she was met with the illusions of what was expected of her to get back to the grassy road. Shaking her head the young mare considered her options.
Instead of attacking the monster like the other illusions had she walked up to it and gave it a hug. The monster had looked exceedingly lonely and when it started to hug back with equal vigor a bright light engulfed the two.
The young mare slowly woke up and the monster had turned into a beautiful friend, it wasn’t an illusion after all and she had only gotten lost in the dark forest for a while. A friend was something the young mare had never had before, she was wary of to continue on.
The friend rammed the young mare from behind and started to push her down the road. The four were now moving together down the now brighter path made of dirt with flowers off to the side of the road. As they walked the path three of them grew older still.
Upon the path they saw a frail young winged mare lying on the ground getting covered in snow. The friend started digging at the snow to get it off the frail mare, the young mare joined her and they freed the frail mare from the cold biting emptiness that was covering her.
The frail mare was about to walk away after thanking them for the rescue only for her to be pulled into a warm hug by the young mare and the friend. The frail one found herself being dragged down the road by the young mare and her friend, while the pixie and companion giggled.
Eventually the frail mare found the strength to start walking on her own down the road. She followed the others and stopped at a place with a red cross, she wanted to repay their kindness for bringing the warmth back into her life and thus became the healer.
The frail mare stopped being so frail and was now constantly carrying a medical kit on her back, the bumps and bruises those she travelled with disappeared much faster now.
At some point the friend wandered off the road and met a glamorous mare, the group paid little attention to the wanderings of the friend.
The young mare stopped at a building and started to work for money, she wanted to buy a home for those who travelled with her.
Eventually the friend came back from out of nowhere with lots of money too and she shared it with them.
They all continued moving down the same road again; they saw a pink pony that gasped and ran off confusing them. In the distance, in a flowered meadow, she could be seen with a blue and purple speck bouncing up and down excitedly.
They tried to move onward only to be stopped by the mayor of a town. A few words were shared and the mayor fell into step with the group, passing by a blonde mare eating a muffin sitting at a blue box.
Off the side of the path the mayor spotted a striped mare sitting apart from a group of indifferent ponies. The mayor turned to the ever aging young mare and asked her to do something.
It was a bit late for that as the companion had already approached the zebra, she started talking and the sad lonely zebra perked up. The wise zebra walked over to the rest of the group and happily started trotting with the rest of them.
A five headed hydra popped up and chased the young mare and her friend off from the rest of the group. The group shrugged and continued up to the point that they met the two resting on the road after being chased all over the place. They were joined by two more ponies with their cat in tow that had been sitting with the tired young mare and her friend.
A stallion riding a flying couch floated by waving to the group and they all waved back. At the same time the companion could be seen snuggling against the fashion mare who owned the cat. The little sister of that fashion mare came over to play with the companion.
They all stopped on the path and looked around confusedly for the healer, they heard said pony walking up to them from another path with a white rabbit looking relatively injured. After meeting up with her friends the once frail mare smiled and her injuries vanished.
The sun slowly started to sink in the sky and it was the onset of the evening. Soon the young mare started galloping and all her friends followed her in picking up the pace. More ponies appeared to gallop along with them in trying and chase the setting sun; they eventually realized how futile it was to the point that they started trotting once more.
A grandmother, a big brother, a big sister and their little pony all smelling of apples joined the herd providing their endurance and strength while smiling brightly as they all went. As their honorary family had just grown in size; they had reasons to smile despite the hardships they had faced and they brought fresh juicy apples with them to share with every pony.
The friend started to hoard all the lightning apples for herself, she liked how they tasted.
The zebra stopped to scoop up a tiny pig like thing into a jar with holes in the lid. She smiled at the little thing as it cowered in fear; she stuffed it away in her saddlebags.
A rainbow colored pony with wings flew into the group and started to pester the friend and the young mare, to the point that their eyes started twitching. Their anger was stopped when the colorful mare flew into a tree, the two mares she was pestering started laughing before they picked her up. They couldn’t stay mad at the rainbow.
Eventually they crossed paths with a teacher, a musician, a reveler, a harpist and a candy maker hoofing out free sweets to every pony she met. They took notice of and met with the young mare and her friend, they had a few issues amongst themselves which were smoothed out in the presence of the young mare.
It was getting to the point that the young mare had an army of ponies following her; the friend stopped to toss some garbage into a trash can and it exploded violently after the entire herd safely passed it. They all decided to stop at a restaurant sitting at the side of the now gravel paved road.
A giant fruitcake dragon swooped in destroying the restaurant and the herd escaped the destruction, most of them decided to continue on. The young mare and rainbow gave chase off the path since the dragon stole the friend. The healer stayed behind to take care of those injured by the destruction of the restaurant.
As the rest of the group walked along the road they met up with the friend, rainbow and the young mare once more. Only now they had a strange cat with them. They were about to continue walking when the healer came galloping up behind the herd only to trip into them causing all the ponies to stumble and fall into a pile of flailing limbs.
Off from the side the pink pony showed up with the muffin mare and the time traveler stallion. The happy pink one jumped into the pile. The blue, purple clothing wearing magician the pink pony was talking to before walked up to the pile, sighing she leapt into it after the pinky pony. Once the herd got back on its hooves, an orange filly came out of nowhere and was now following the rainbow around in the herd.
The herd continued to walk down the road and coming up next to it was a river where a friendly river serpent popped up to wave at the passing ponies. The zebra stopped to talk with the river serpent as the rest of the herd moved on.
The young mare squeaked when the healer and the elder apple sister ran in front of her and then they were squirrels, a drunken mare stumbled randomly into the herd and then out of it while being followed by her family. That confused the herd so badly; it took a few moments for the squirrels to be returned to normal.
A small black bug like creature poked its head from behind a bush watching them pass by; it started trailing behind the herd only to screech when a giant bear sneezed on it causing it to get stuck in some mucus. The healer heard its cry of dismay and turned around to rescue the whiny changeling, it too became one with the herd.
A lot of minotaurs ran past the herd as it traveled, they were trying to escape from a giant bird whose rider was the young mare’s mother. The young mare’s brother soon ran past them being chased by a giant banana monster; the entire herd slowed to watch him pass in astonishment before turning back towards the brick road ahead of them.
They stopped when the friend and the now almost adult mare ran towards a wedding where the glamorous mare and a true noble were standing together. The friend and rainbow stopped a bad pony from hurting the two being wedded. The two married ponies hugged their friends and heroes then went down a separate path and were given a great send off by the herd.
A short while afterwards the almost adult mare’s horn lit up and she flew into the air, she became a living shooting star. She was still being followed by the entire herd as the world started getting darker slowly turning to night; they all would walk the moonlit path without fear following the light of the living star.
A bulky stallion joined the group flexing his muscles while smiling, only to scream in a girly manner while being run off by cupcakes which in turn were chased by the pink pony and the strange cat.
The almost adult mare flew happily over to a brave intrepid explorer, a gold hearted thief and a foreign princess playing in a sandbox. They all waved to the herd, two of them left the sandbox heading for home while the explorer followed the herd. The explorer only stayed parallel with them for a little while, watching fondly as the orange filly played with the rainbow. Turning away the explorer flew off on her own path with tears in her eyes as she led some dangerous shadows away from the herd.
The herd finally saw a town coming up in the distance, the changeling quickly turned into a cocoon before they could reach it much to the herd’s sadness. The healer lifted and carried the cocoon as they continued onward.
After a point they had noticed the moon stopped moving, it was now hanging directly above them. All the ponies jumped when a flash of darkness happened, an angry evil looking mare appeared before them.
Following the adult mares lead, the herd all just ran forward to embrace the moon wielder. After a moment they released the moon pony and she looked much less menacing now. The friend decided to get into a fight with the moon pony; it resulted in a dust cloud with the rest of the herd watching on in rapt interest, the fighting became much more playful as it went on.
Eventually the mare of the moon joined the herd; she listened to the worried words of the adult mare wishing to help those who disappeared from the herd that went after a wayward student of the sun pony. Only after a pitched battle with an eldritch abomination to save the angry student did the sun pony finally appear filled with sadness at seeing the moon pony once again.
Only after the moon pony talked to the sun pony and hugged her did the sadness leave, the sun pony went down a different path with some of her burden eased.
The herd disbanded and entered the surrounding empty homes of the town as soon as they arrived. They were all tired and weary from traveling the road with the adult mare.
The fully adult mare, her friend and the moon pony decided to sit on a nearby hill overlooking the town. They looked back on bright sunny road they had all walked down leading into the night and talked about their experiences. It seemed like they could go no further then the town where the herd decided to settle down.
A normal rectangular wooden door with a star and brush symbol appeared in front of the adult mare. Tilting her head while looking at it quizzically, the world seemed to freeze. There was nothing beyond the town that the herd was now resting in, but the door was something entirely new and just when the mare had thought she had seen everything on the road.
The adult mare tried to push it open only to fail, her friend came up to her and hugged her affectionately. The mare turned to her friend sadly pointing at the door wishing to explore it. They both tried to push it open together and barely managed a glimpse of what was on the other side before it slammed shut in their faces. The friend just shook her head as it seemed the door just wasn’t meant to be opened yet.
“Give it time, there’s no need to rush as the path will open when you’re ready to continue. Rest now and start again anew. We will learn much from watching thee, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna smiled as the adult mare yawned and draped herself across her friend. The friend snuggled into the adult mare as she too fell asleep. Walking away from the adorable dream of life, Luna went to write a letter to her sister. “Whether it is day or night, thy future looks bright for all who will come to know thee as a friend most dear. A true star will share its brilliance with the whole world.”
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Dear sister,
We know you have only just left yesterday, but we have learned much in such a short time. We wish your student Ms. Shimmer good health and quick recovery. You may not have apologized yet for ignoring our feelings, but we apologize for what our actions have cost thee and the world. We don’t know the true scope of the damage that we have done and can never fully make up for it and those we have failed. We will try to make up for it by aiding those in the present and the friends we have recently made.
The elements of harmony were not the only power that could have returned us to sanity. Yes we know of thy plan to use them against us again, it seems our ponies were well informed of our return. The elements are now where we thought they truly belong to begin with and have nothing to worry about as they can no longer fall into dangerous hooves. For one who used to plan so elegantly, we currently find thee lacking in foresight.
We are ageless yet there are many lessons that we can still learn or will have to relearn, to think we can never learn something new is a falsity. It is a fact that we are still ponies no matter what the status or power we hold and are easily capable of hurting those we wish to protect.
Worry not for our safety as we have as many protectors as those we would wish to protect in this town, please do not make a big fuss of our return and have guards watch us in secret. If thou must make a fuss, then at least keep the nobles away from our countenance. We have no love of having to deal with such behavior as what we have heard thus far from our friends here in Ponyville.
There is one question in particular we wish to know an answer to, how does one properly court a mare in this day and age? In the past we kept quiet about our preferences, but now a thousand years later we have learned that loving both mare and stallion equally isn’t as looked down upon as it was then.
It is truly good to be back amongst our subjects and to see you again. We hope that you will write back to us soon so that we may reconnect a bond once broken at the end of the time of Discord.
From the princess of the night, your sister returned, Luna.
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Thend, THEND I SAY!