An adventure from a history book makes a comeback

by keam

Chapter 5: Welcome to Ponyville

Chapter Five: Welcome to Ponyville

A two hours train ride later, they were in Ponyville. The town was mostly known for being the home of the Elements of Harmony at one time. Today, a thousand or so years later, it was a peaceful, quiet countryside town that did it best to survive in the shadow of bigger cities like Canterlot and Manehattan.

When arriving on the station, they immediately asked for directions and navigated themselves to the Golden Oak Library. The library was designed after the library that Twilight Sparkle had been working and living in before Tirek destroyed it and it was replaced with a crystal castle. Before stepping inside the library, they took a moment to admire the fantastic creation the building actually was. It was a house and a library, located inside a living tree. They couldn't even begin to imagine how complex the spell used to create such a thing must have been.

When they opened the door and stepped inside, a bell jingled and somepony said:

“Just a minute, I'm coming!”

A minute or so later, an old, white coated unicorn mare with a heart and a note as cutie mark walked out of one of the side rooms in the big library.

“So, what can I help you with?” she said, inspecting the visitor’s fancy clothes before continuing. “Are you new in town? I've never seen you before.”

Not wanting her to get suspicious, Heart quickly explained their errand to the mare.

“Yes, we're new here, and we would like to look at Twilight Sparkle’s personal journals and the Mane Six Friendship Diary."

The unicorn mare looked like she was about to have a heart attack, as if Heart's request too much for her to handle.

“NO!” the mare screamed, after several seconds of silence finally able to say something.

After a couple more seconds, the mare had finally recovered enough to give a proper answer to Heart's question.

“You can't! The journals belong to my family, since Twilight Sparkle never had any kids. No one except for the descendants of the Mane Six and their siblings are allowed to read them. Besides, their friendship diary belongs to the descendants of the Element of Honesty, Applejack. Applejack and Twilight Sparkle were the ones that lived longest; they decided which family would take care of it after Twilight cast the spell that would protect it from the ravages of time.”

The librarian looked at the guests, all of which had a puzzled expression, waiting for somepony to ask a question.

“So, it belongs to the descendants of Applejack?” Daffodil finally asked, her voice quiet. “But it is stored here in the library, right?”

The older mare nodded.

“Yes, but you need permission from descendants of Applejack to read it.” She answered in a (insert adjective here) tone.

“Wait, why do you want to read the journals and the diary anyway?” She then said suspiciously.

They looked at each other, unsure what to say. Should they tell the truth? Should they tell her that Nightmare Moon had returned and that Celestia was kidnapped? Would she even believe them?

“Discord told us that we should do it, and that it might help us solve some problems we're having” Mint finally said, deciding to only tell a part of the truth.

“Discord? The spirit of chaos himself?” The mare asked, baffled.

They all nodded in respond.

“Well, in that case, I guess I can give you access to the journals” She slowly said. “But you still need permission from the Apple family to read the diary.”

While the library went down to the basement to get the journals, they decided that Misty, Hypie and Mint would stay in the library and start read in the journals. Meanwhile, Daffodil, Bright and Heart went to the farm and asked for permission to read the diary.

On the librarian’s recommendation, Bright, Heart and Daffodil took off their dresses, which had been forgotten in the rush to get to Ponyville.

---

After traveling for about twenty minutes, they could see many acres with big apple trees spreading out on each side of the road, indicating that they were entering the Apple family’s grounds. Many of the families that where descendants of the elements of harmony had moved away from Ponyville long ago, and today only the descendants of Applejack and Fluttershy remain.

After walking in silence for several minutes, they were suddenly surprised by somepony addressing them:

“Howdy, how can I help y’all?”

A green earth pony mare with a golden mane and an Apple on a stick being dipped in a jar of honey as cutie mark appeared from behind a couple of Apple trees, approaching the newcomers.

“Are you new in town? I haven't seen you before!” The mare asked after inspecting Bright, Heart and Daffodil.

They all nodded.

“Yes, my name is Bright Sky, and this is Daffodil Spark and Heart Dot.” Bright began, pointing at her friends. “We came with the train from Canterlot earlier today.”

The green mare gave them a big smile.

“Then you're new! Nice to meet you, my name is Honey Apple.” Honey exclaimed. “So, what can I help you with?”

Daffodil, Heart, and Bright exchanged worried looks, remembering how things turned out last time they asked this kind of question.

“Well, it is like this” Daffodil began, her voice barely audible. “That we are here to ask for permission to read in the Mane Six Friendship Diary.”

“You want to do what?!” Honey gasped, apparently having heard everything despite Daffodils low voice. “Well, you better ask my granny about that, ‘cause according to family law, only the oldest pony in the family has the right to authorise such a thing!”

Honey then jumped over the fence and said:

“Come on! Follow me!”

Since their new found acquaintance was quickly disappearing in the distance, Daffodil, Bright and Heart found themselves with no other choice than to jump over the fence and follow.

---

After another fifteen minutes, the three friends, led by Honey, reached a big clearing amongst the Apple trees. In the middle of the big clearing was an old farm house. The outside of the house showed clear signs of having stood there vacant for a long time; the red paint was cracked, and in some case even having worn off, exposing the smooth wooden surface underneath. A small, winding path lead up to the old house and Heart silently wondered why they hadn't followed it instead of galloping through the orchard.

Honey quickly showed them to the living room and told them to wait whilst she went upstairs to get her grandmother. The living room was a small room decorated with a table and a couch in the middle on top of a green carpet with red apples. On the left side of the couch, somepony had placed a crib. Her curiosity peeked; Daffodil walked over to the crib and looked inside. Inside was a little, yellow earth pony colt with orange mane sleeping peacefully.

“That's my little brother, Braeburn.” Honey said as she came down the stairs and noticed Daffodil looking at the sleeping foal inside the crib.

Honey was followed by an old earth pony mare with a yellow coat and a pale pink mane. On her flank, there were three white apple blossoms.

“So, why is Honey telling me that you are seeking permission to read the Friendship Diary?” The old mare directly asked, making clear that she wanted no lies.

Whilst waiting for one of the three friends to answer, she sat down on the couch in the middle next to Honey.

“Because Discord told us that it might help us get the Elements of Harmony.” Bright finally said after several seconds of forced silence.

“So, Discord told you to go get it and find the Elements? Why do you want the Elements? Why would you trust him?”

The old mare didn't seem surprised Discord was involved, unlike the librarian they told earlier, but her eyes were glowing with dislike.

“We want the Elements to defeat Nightmare Moon and save princess Celestia” Heart blurted out, not being able to take the old mares accusing glare any longer. “And we trusted him because we didn't have any other clues about how to get the Elements and defeat Nightmare Moon.”

“Nightmare Moon has returned!?” Now the mare seemed chocked. “Why didn't you say so?! She must be stopped, before she destroys Equestria! Or even worse, turn Discord around!”

“So we have permission to read in the Diary?” Daffodil carefully asked. She didn’t knew what “turn Discord around” meant, but she sure got that with destroy Equestria!

The old mare turned around and starred right at Daffodil, her eyes bewildered.

“Of course! You better get going at one, Honey will show you the way! I got something I have to do.” The old mare answered, quickly chasing them out the door.

---

As her grandmother asked, Honey followed Daffodil, Heart, and Bright back to the main road to Ponyville. She told them to inform the librarian, Sweetie Bell, that Apple Bloom had given them permission to read the diary.

“Wait!” Honey exclaimed precisely when they were ready to go. “Maybe I should come with you after all?”

“Sure, if you want to” Heart Dot said, seeing no reason as to why they should say no to some extra company.

“Okay, good. I was almost finished apple bucking anyway!” Honey said, looking back at the orchards before trotting up beside them.

So with Honey by their side, they started trotting back towards Ponyville.

Author's Note:

So, here it finally is. I'm really sorry for it taking so much time. Next will be out quicker, I promise.

Edited by Tony Montana

Comments

[donelel]

Wow, I'm way late on commenting on this chapter.

Once again, good chapter. I'm going to stop saying that from now on; it's getting repetitive.

You'll know that I think it's a good chapter unless I say otherwise.

One question though: are "Apple Bloom" and "Sweetie Bell" the same ones from the show, or are they just descendants of them. If they are the characters from the show, I doubt that they'd be alive after a thousand years (that is unless you have the perspective that ponies have extremely long life spans).

[keam]

5534068
Haha, it's okay! I get so little comments otherwise that even repetitive once are nice. XD

No, they are descendants. Since not even Twilight Sparkle is alive any longer, it would be weird for the CMC to be.

[donelel]

5535072
Okay, just wondering.

[keam]

5536789
It's okay. I was warned it might happen.

[keam]

5652591
Yeah, I've heard that a couple of times, so I thought I'd put it in there ...

5652593
Yep...sidefic ahead right there. XD

5652596
Yeah, it was the best way to get everypony where I wanted thrm when I wanted them. Actually never put any thoughts into that! XD

[keam]

5652606
XD don't ket them hear you!

Yeah, I like LunaCord...good. remember that when we come to the end of th7s story.