//------------------------------//
// Chapter 0: Prologue 
// Story: Regret 
// by I Am The Night 
//------------------------------//


Prologue







Morning was always the best part of the day, primarily for you. You never knew exactly why you seemed to love mornings more than everypony else. It was just how it was, and that was how you liked it.

The only dislike you had when the sun rose was when it would shine down on your face. Every once in a while, depending on whether not the sky was cloudy in the morning, you would find yourself waking up nearly blinded, your vision blurred only temporarily until you woke up completely...or in some cases, closed those cursed blinds.

But that was your only pet peeve with sunrise, and you didn't find it that bothersome. In honesty, at least it woke you up when you needed to....such as now.

Upon waking up and closing the blinds for what you could over-exaggerate as the millionth time, you rub your eyes gently with your hooves, yawning and taking in the morning air, before slowly letting out a big gust of breath. Once you were as relaxed as you possibly could be, you slowly got up from the comfort of your bed and sluggishly made your way into the bathroom to brush your teeth.

On your way to the door, you lift a hoof and aim to press a button on a radio. As your hoof makes contact with the button, the radio almost instantly comes to life, a female voice filling the bathroom with life.

"Hello everypony! This is PonyvilleFM with today's Ponyville news! I'm Sunny Beat with the latest!"

It was the same thing she would say every day, but you were quite used to it. In fact, you found it relaxing to hear. So as you applied toothpaste to your brush and began to lather your teeth with the minty freshness, you applied the radio to your ears.

For a good few minutes, it would give certain subjects a minute or two of discussion time; this would result from politics, to entertainment, to gaming. The Gaming topic was the one you hated the most, as it would always talk about the same game rather than every other game that exists.

'We get it. Fallout Equestria 4 is coming,' you say to yourself, but sadly, your request would never be heard, so you dealt with it.

You continue to brush your teeth for several more minutes, making sure you got every single tooth and corner. Spitting out the contents of your mouth into the sink to wash it down, Sunny Beat began to finish off her broadcast with a final statement.

"And for my final topic today: Ponyville's got a birthday coming up tomorrow! Tomorrow, Ponyville's very own Rainbow Dash will be turning 23! Let's give her a round of applause and wish her a happy birthday!"

Your ears perked up almost immediately at the sound of Rainbow Dash's name.

Then your eyes widened at the words, 'happy birthday'.

And you felt stupid for forgetting it for even a second.

Tomorrow was Rainbow Dash's birthday.

For a pony who doesn't know who Rainbow Dash really was, they would not care much at all about her birthday...well, not as much as YOU, of course.

But you were different from those other ponies.





You grew up and lived east, far from Ponyville, in the city of Chicacolt. You found it okay to live there, but recent political struggles there forced you to move out and leave the city before things would go from bad to worse.

After a few days on the road, you were already beginning to consider going back home. You figured that it would be better to eventually live in a run-down house than starve to death on the side of the road.

But then as you began to make your way back, you found yourself staring upon a billboard on the roadside. You did notice it, but upon walking by it, you only saw its backside until you turned around.

The billboard was of a small, quaint little village, the image bustling with life, the sky bursting with color, and big bold words plastered on the top and bottom of the image, seeming to advertise the village.



COME TO PONYVILLE!

WHERE FRIENDSHIP IS ALWAYS MAGIC!



It was cheesy advert text, but it was advertisement nonetheless.

And it hooked you.

The billboard alone grabbing your attention, you turn once more around in the direction you were originally heading. Not stopping for one moment, you continue forward for another day, maybe two, until you found yourself stepping into the same town that the billboard had promoted to you and any other passersby.

The first pony you met---and judging by others, the first pony everyone in town ever met---was Pinkie Pie, the town's dessert baker. The moment she met you, she blasted your face with questions about you, then statements about her own doing. Then after her endless, comma-less speech, she insisted that she threw a 'welcome to town' party just for you. Before you could even object to it, she was gone.

You spent your first day in town talking with ponies, getting to know some, and even making some best friends along the way.

And then...

You met her.

It was an occasional 'bumping into each other' kind of greeting, followed by an apology and the usual 'goodbye!'

Sure, you had done this same thing to several other mares over your life with no real connection between you and them, but for you, this bump was different. You didn't just shrug it off and walk away.

You watched her intently as she flew off, and just from that, your heart fluttered with joy.

It may have been wrong, but if love at first sight was wrong, you didn't want to be right.

You saw her again later that day at the party Pinkie had thrown for you at town hall. She recognized you instantly as 'that guy I bumped into today!'

The two of you sparked up a conversation just outside the town hall building. You remember talking for what felt like an hour before the two of you decided to head back to the party.

You did wish something more could have happened that night, but her becoming your best friend more than made up for it.







And tomorrow was her birthday.

You were baffled at yourself at how you managed to even forget that in the span of a single night, but luckily, Sunny Beat came on the radio just to remind you about it. And just thinking about it got you even more giddy for the rest of the day.

Once you were finished in the bathroom, you turned off the light and walked out, turning off the radio before heading downstairs to fix yourself some breakfast: The occasional peanut butter and jelly toast, with a pinch of hay to top it off.

But also milk, of course. You can never forget the milk.

As you made your toast, you turned on the kitchen radio and tuned it to the same station, now simply playing local music by the town DJ. Some of the songs were okay, but others didn't exactly click with you. Nonetheless, it was nice to listen to some music while having breakfast.

While you were a slow eater, it honestly didn't take very long for you to eat your toast, washing it all down with a cold glass of milk. Once finished, you carried your dirty dishes and placed them into the sink for later.

Pushing in your chair, you exit the kitchen and make your way into the living room. As you entered the room, you could already hear the outside world coming to life. In the distance, a bell rang, followed by a group of young fillies and colts chattering their way to school. A few adult ponies passed by each other every once in a while, greeting with the simple 'hello' and 'good morning'. And---no surprise---Pinkie Pie was already setting up shop in front of Sugarcube Corner, this time with a batch of cinnamon brownies.


However, you didn't care about cinnamon brownies at this very moment.

Your only focus today was surprising the mare of your dreams.


Today was planning day.










Regret
By
I Am The Night