"'Be grateful, Niya!'" the young mare grumbled in a raspy voice, imitating Clementine. She had spent the past hour stumbling through the snow, and had presently appeared in front of a sign. The arrow pointing to the left featured a potato, indicating the farm was that way. The other read, in fancy scrawl, 'Canterlot'. "Well, guess what? I am grateful; grateful to get away!" she glared back in the direction in which she had come from, before stuffing her scarf deeper into her pocket. She continued towards the sign, staring down the path. She could just see the top of a windmill over the hill, turning lazily in the winter breeze.
"'Go left!', she says." the mare rasped, before her voice returned to normal. "Well, I know what's to the left." she straightened her torn glove "I'll be 'Orphan Niya' forever. But..." she backed up towards the other path "if I go right," she turned to face the path "Who knows what I could find!" She glanced up at the sign pointing to the right. She scanned it for a moment, rolling her eyes. "Okay, well, Canterlot obviously, but maybe..." sighing, the blue Pegasus pulled out her necklace, reading the back.
"Who ever gave me this necklace must have loved me." she face hoofed "This is crazy! Me, go to Maris? Send me a sign!" she threw her head towards the sky "A hint...something, anything!" She sat down at the base of one the pine trees surrounding the road. The wind picked up, pulling locks of her mane from her hat. She tucked her wings to her side, shivering as she looked around, waiting for something to appear, when something hit her in the back of the head. She toppled over, getting a muzzlefull of snow. A tiny dark green creature slid off the back of Niya's head, plopping into the soft whiteness. She rubbed her head, shivering.
"What the hay!" Niya growled, spitting out snow and trying to warm her freezing muzzle. She looked around but saw nothing until she looked down. She cocked her head at the tiny, fairy-like animal sitting beside her. She remembered when a retired traveler had come by the orphanage, and told the foals about such creatures. He even had shown them pictures. "You...You're a Breezie!"
"Brrr pfft clkt clkt clkt!" the Breezie let out a series of chirps and whistles.
"Hmm, that's not what that guy said you guys sound like. Outcast?"
"Brrr..." was the response, with the tiny animal nodding sadly, pulling Niya's scarf from her pocket.
"Yeah, me t-hey! I don't have time to play right now. I'm waiting for a sign." she reached out for the scarf "Now give me-" the Breezie darted around her, flying around her legs with Niya turning and twisting, trying in vain to reach the scarf. "Hey, stop that! Give me- ow- Hey, I- OOF!" the mare tripped over the scarf, crashing into the snow. She looked up, snow sliding down her face. The Breezie stood in the middle of the road that lead to Canterlot.
"Great," Niya sat up, brushing off her now wet clothes "a Breezie wants me to go to Canter-wait a second!" she looked from the sign to the Breezie to the sky. "Thank you!" she mouthed to the clouds before turning to the tiny winged pony. "Okay, okay, I can take a hint." She lifted her scarf from the snow, returning it to her pocket but leaving half to drag the snow.
"Pfft, brip burrt clkt!"
"Uhh, yeah I guess you can come, I mean, you are my sign right?" the Breezie settled atop Niya's back, just in between her wings "But you'll need a name. How about...." she glanced about the pine trees "Evergreen?"
"Brip brup brrr!" was the excited response.
"Evergreen it is then." Niya looked down the road, snow beginning to fall. Taking a deep breath, she began to sing.
"Heart, don't fail me now. Courage, don't desert me." she took a step forward, looking back once "Don't turn back," and faced forward again "now that I'm here. Ponies always say 'Life is full of choices'. No one ever mentioned," she shivered "fear. Or how the land can seem so vast...on a journey...to your past!" Niya began walking.
The two girls had been walking for about a mile, with Evergreen having stepped off of Niya's back in favor of taking a moment to stretch her wings.
"Somewhere down this road," Niya continued her song "I know somepony's waiting. Years of dreams just can't be wrong!" she imagined walking up to a group of ponies who looked somewhat like her, telling them her story. In her mind's eye, she could see their eyes widen in shock before brimming with tears as they hugged, welcoming Niya back into her family. "Eyes will open wide. I'll be safe and wanted. Finally home, where I belong!" she reared up, twirling around before slamming back down, kicking up flurries of snow. "Well, starting now, I'm learning fast," she took off at a canter, leaving Evergreen struggling to catch up "on this journey to the past!"
They came to a small clearing. A house stood in the middle and a family could be seen playing together in the snow. When the foals caught sight of Evergreen, the trotted up to Niya.
"Excuse us, miss?" the colt asked "Can we play with yer fairy? We never seen one before."
"Britt! Prrft!" Evergreen leaped onto the filly's head. She glanced up at Niya with pleading eyes. "Hmmm..."
"Sure."
Half an hour later, Niya and Evergreen continued on their way. Standing atop a hill, they waved back at the little family. The foals waved back before tackling their father, wrestling in the snow as their mother watched them with a kind smile. The laughter could be heard even from where Niya and Evergreen stood. Lowering her hoof, Niya frowned with a pang of longing.
"Home...love...family..." she turned, again singing, before quickly walking away, wiping tears from her eyes "there was once a time I must have had them too..." she sighed, keeping her chin up "Home, love, family; I will never be complete until I find you!" She marched towards a river, abandoning the bridge in favor of a log going across.
"One stride at a time; one hoof then another," she jumped on the log. Rearing on her hind legs and using her wings to balance her, she pulled her hat off, revealing that her hair had been tied into a messy ponytail "Who knows where this road may go! Back to who I was," she slammed the hat back onto her head "on to find my future. Things my heart still needs to know!" she jumped off the log, skipping along the path. Evergreen zipped around in the air in attempts to avoid the snow that was getting kicked up.
"Yes, let this be a sign! Let this road be mine! Let it lead me to my past! And bring me home," they reached the peak of a hill, finally overlooking Canterlot. Niya reared up, waving her hat around in triumph. "at last!"
Niya stepped up to one of the ticket windows at the Canterlot Train Station. "One ticket to Maris, please." she said with a smile.
"Travel papers." the stallion reached a hoof out.
"Travel papers?"
"No travel papers, no ticket!" the window shut in her face. Niya jumped back in surprise, and Evergreen shifted beneath her hat.
"Well...that happened..."
"Psst!"
"Huh?" Niya looked around before her eyes rested on an elderly mare waving at her from the shadows. She walked over, and the mare gave her a sympathetic look.
"First day in the city, eh pet?"
"That obvious?"
"Well, you didn't know about Silver Stocking's new rule. No citizen of Canterlot can leave without proper identification."
"What can I do?"
"See Comet. He can help."
"Where can I find him?"
"In the old palace." the older mare looked around fearfully "But you didn't hear that from me!"
"Oh..." Niya nodded, turning and walking away. 'Comet...' Niya thought. She didn't know why, but the name seemed familiar.
"Y-yes, uh, thank you. W-we'll be in touch." Comet scribbled a name off of the paper in front of him, waving the mare off the stage "Next, please!" Another mare sauntered up onto the stage. She sported a patchy-painted cardboard horn, and a pair of wings fairing similar conditions. Her coat, mane, and tail were very obviously dyed blue, but patches of orange and brown peeked through.
"Sister, it's me!" she rasped, giving her hips a shake "Luna!"
"Oh brother..." Comet grumbled, scratching off the name in front of him as Lute just laid his head in defeat on the table.
"That's it! It's all over!" Lute stomped through the snow, ripping up papers in his magic "Slaving through auditions all day, almost running over rental time on the theater, and still no mare to pretend to be the princess." The two stallions were leaving the theater after a long, discouraging day. They headed towards the palace, where they had decided to stay that night.
"Not just yet. Remember, just one look at this jewelry box, and Celestia will think that we've brought the real princess. And by the time she realizes the truth, we'll be far away with the reward money." Comet bumped into a mare as they walked.
"Watch where you're going!" she snapped at him.
"What where you're standing!" he fired back as he and Lute turned down an alleyway.
Niya walked up to a stallion. "Excuse me," she began "I'm new around here, and I-hey!" somepony bumped into her "Watch where you're going!" she yelled at the retreating figures.
"Watch where you're standing!"
"Anyway, I was wondering if you could tell me how to get to the palace?"
"That way, but, I must warn you, it's nothing like it used to be." the stallion waved her off towards the palace.