My mind was alive with activity as I walked back towards my home in the fading dusk. Applejack walked alongside me, a kind of companionable, thoughtful silence between us. I was content to let it remain, lost in thought as we trod the path towards our respective destinations. The silence wavered slightly, small shudders of breath escaping us in the chilled night air. It seemed as though after hearing Twilight recite that tale, the town itself sat in silent reverence, remembering the sacrifice made to confirm its place on the map. We parted ways at the bend in the road that separated our houses, still without speaking. A strange gravity settled in my mind, a solemnness of thought over the events that had transpired throughout the day. I felt there was something important happening in my newfound home, but after reflecting on what it could possibly be, I came up as blank as before.
Something about the day’s events was playing behind my eyelids as I settled in to take my first night here in Ponyville, my first night alone in years. Slowly, it resolved into an image, clarifying itself into a collage of the people I had met over the last ten hours. All of them stood out in a way that was unique not only from the other inhabitants of the town, but even from each other. They had aspects of personality that meshed and flowed together in perfect cadence, rhythmically complimenting each other, yet remaining alive and vibrant separate from the others. In a way, they almost seemed one entity. From among this rapid-fire slideshow, the last girl I’d met stood out the most. She seemed incredibly intelligent, yet kind. She didn’t wield her knowledge over others as an authority or superiority, and this amazed me. Everyone in Canterlot I’d met outside my home seemed to be in a competition of fashion, of power, and of what was “in” or “out”. But here was a woman who acted out of a simple, matter of fact attitude coupled with modest humility, spreading knowledge to better the lives of others.
My mind slowly dimmed, my clarity grew hazy, and at length, I fell asleep, and dreams came easily that night; dreams of a great library, of a long since dead family, of a little girl’s sacrifice, and of the shy, knowledge-loving curator who tied the whole thing together. Peaceful sleep soothed my weary body, healed it of fatigue, repaired overworked tissue, and calmed my mind. Worries and fears seeped away; poison drawn from an already healing wound.
Morning came all too soon; casting Celestia’s brilliant, shining light over Equestria. The warm golden glow drew me softly from the depths of peaceful slumber, my eyes blurring the line between fantasy and reality as they slowly drew themselves open. The world exploded into stunning clarity, and my second day in Ponyvile began with a bang. Rather, an immensely loud knock on my door, accompanied by a singsong-y voice.
“Good morning! Are you awake yet? Did I wake you? Are you excited? I’m so excited; I’ve never been this excited in my entire life. Well, except for that time I met Twilight and went, “ HUUUUUUUUNH!” or that time we defeated Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna came back but I mean really, what could top that? Anyhow, YOU NEED TO GET UP!!”
The force of that voice pulled me out of bed and I prepared to launch into a verbal assault worthy of a wrathful God; or at least, an empress. Quite promptly, I realized that not only was I in a severe state of undress, but also that yelling the ears off of someone I likely didn’t even know was not the best way to make a good impression. So, yawning heartily instead, I dressed as quickly as humanly possible, gave my hair a disheartened once over and my teeth a peremptory brushing. My stiff joints and cold muscles groaned in protest as I propelled myself through the simple door separating me from the outside world. The first thing that I noticed was the light. Bright, soft light poured down upon the town, giving everything an angelic cast; the town seemed to have come straight from a fairy-tale, complete with Canterlot Castle set far in the backdrop. Flowers bloomed everywhere; birds hummed sweetly in the distance from the direction of the cottage-in-the-meadow Applejack had taken me to last night to meet her friend. Squinting, I located the source of a stream of rapid-fire speech. Standing directly off to my left was what appeared to be a mass of wild, pink hair attached to a face broken into the most enormous grin I’d ever seen.
“I’ve just got to take you around the town; we can visit the market and buy apples and carrots and celery stalks and sundaes and sugar and sarsaparilla! And then we can go to the shopping centre and get you some… well, I don’t really know what, but it’ll be great! And then we can visit Sugarcube Corner, where I work and which is also the Cake’s house they turned into a bakery and confectionery. Once we’re there we’ll eat more ice cream sundaes and chocolate mousse and chocolate cake and gumdrops and gooey caramel and candied apples and apple fritters and lemon meringue pie and candy canes and coconut crunch and choco-choco chip cookies and it’ll be a blast!
Once we’re done there, we can go see Applejack down on the farm and help her work the land for a while because it’s a ton of fun and I know she can use the help this time of year with harvest and applebuck season on their way. It’s a ton of work to run a farm, you know? Especially one as big as Sweet Apple Acres, and even though their family was over yesterday that was the last day of their reunion, so only a few out of Towner’s are still kicking around. That leaves just AJ and Mac and Applebloom to watch over Granny Smith, run the farm, do all the chores, and make meals on top of it! Once that’s all finished, we’ll go to the clubs just outside of town until sunset and PAARTYY! Ohmigosh, I’m so excited aren’t you? It’s going to be so much fun! Eeeeeeeeee!”
Her voice finally wound down and she stood there, looking at me with that humongous grin still on her face and not a single hair out of place-not that many could be considered in place, but you catch my meaning. My head was a bit light from following her mile a minute pace and just as I’d finished processing all of what she’d said, she jumped and yelled again. Grabbing me firmly by the arm, she said, “ Oh I’m so happy that you agree; in fact I’m so happy I wrote a song about it just for you! It goes like this; ‘She’s an evil enchantress and she does evil dances and wh-‘…. Oh wait, that’s not it! Drat, well, I guess I didn’t really make a song for you yet but I will one day alright, so don’t worry and let’s just have fun!”
And with that, we were off. Well, almost off anyway. Another one of the girls I’d been introduced to ran up to us with an excited shout of “Hey Pinkie! Whatcha doing?” and glommed onto her in the biggest hug I’d seen in my life. I remembered a little too late that this was Pinkie Pie, seeing how I’d been graciously reminded of the fact. I mean come on, the hair alone should have been enough, but my mind still wasn’t quite to par. The newcomer must be Rainbow Dash, and again I had her wacky, vivid, rainbow streaked hair to thank. She soon picked up enough to realize what we were up to, or about to be up to, and announced to the world at large that she was all in, cause “Parties with Pinkie are always so awesome!” We high-tailed it over the street and lit into the farmyard with the sun well on its way to the crack of nine in the morning and I knew that this would be the start of what was likely the best day ever. Mind awhirl with excitement, I crossed the threshold onto AJ’s property with a grin wide as a mile, and pinkie started singing a hyper, high pitched song about smiling that had us Dash and I busting up and grinning like maniacs as we knocked on the door to the main house on the acreage. Applejack greeted our cheery trio with words that sent our high spirits crashing violently to the earth at our feet.
“Granny Smith just got sent to the hospital.”