Domain of Friendship

by Cold Bolt

Episode 1-11

Waterwing gave a silent gasp, covering her mouth with her forehooves as she quickly glanced toward her companions. To her dismay, however, their reactions were no more confident than hers.

A bead of sweat rolled down Tank’s neck as he slowly climbed out of his seat. “Uh… could you guys give us a minute? I think we need to go check something. Like, right now.”

“We will likely not be gone long.” Scarlet put her foreleg over a hesitant Waterwing to urge her along.

“Wait.” Twilight hopped down from her chair. “We’ll come with you.”

The three exchanged brief glances.

Tank scratched his head. “Uh… if you want, sure.”

At this, the rest of the ponies rose from their seats as well, and the party made for the library door.

---

A light breeze rolled over the hills just a little ways outside of town. It was here that Scarlet stopped, prompting the rest of the party to come to a halt behind her.

Scarlet turned to her comrades. “This was it, correct?”

After a moment of hesitation, Waterwing nodded slowly.

Applejack’s gaze swept across the plain. The lush grasses swayed in the wind as a small flock of birds fluttered by overhead. “Sure looks like an ordinary field to me…”

Tank sighed. “Yup, that’s pretty much exactly what I was afraid of.”

“Well, we won’t know for sure unless we take a closer look, right?” Twilight stepped to the fore of the party and turned back toward the others. “Come on, everypony; maybe there’s a clue around here somewhere.”

With that, the nine of them marched out onto the field to begin their investigation. Those with wings took to the air, scanning the horizon from the mountains in the north to the Everfree Forest a ways south; the rest found themselves scouring the brush for whatever they might find. No idle chatter passed between them as they went; the apprehension in the air dampened any desire for it.

A few minutes turned into many more, soon surpassing an hour… and eventually saw all nine ponies retreating to the base of a now all-too-familiar hill. Though they stood in a loose circle to facilitate conversation, no one seemed eager to share their findings… and as Twilight finally broke the silence, it quickly became obvious why.

“So… what did everypony find?”

At this, heads turned away and gazes fell to avoid eye contact.

“Uh, well, we found…” Rainbow Dash glanced over her shoulder hesitantly before finishing her sentence with a sigh. “…absolutely nothing.”

“I… I’m sorry, everypony,” Fluttershy added, her voice once again barely above a whisper.

“We must have turned over every blade of grass in this entire field,” Rarity declared. “Were there anything here to find, I’m certain we would have uncovered it by now.”

“Like this rock?” Pinkie grinned as she held up a small rock. “It’s got a hoof mark on it. I think it might be a clue!”

“Oh, uh…” Tank winced slightly. “I… think that’s the rock I kicked before ‘cause I was irritated. I doubt it’s gonna help us any.”

“Oh…” Visibly deflated, Pinkie tossed the rock aside and watched it roll away.

Tank sat back on his haunches, glaring at the grass as though he presumed it responsible. “I don’t get it. No portal, no landing pad… no tire tracks, for however much sense that would even make… and no traces of magic, either. Unless that would have faded by now.”

Scarlet shook her head. “The amount of magic required to transport three people between worlds would be enormous. I highly doubt it would dissipate in a matter of hours, and had we been here longer than that, someone surely would have noticed us.”

“So… if there even are any clues, we have no way of knowing where to look for them.” Tank stared over his shoulder for a moment as though expecting to notice something that the nine of them hadn’t in a thorough search of the area. Eventually, he heaved a frustrated sigh. “Which means… we’re stranded.”

sniff

A quiet thud came as Waterwing fell prone in the grass, the soft sound of her voiceless sobbing coming from behind her forelegs, in which her face was now buried. Tank stared at his own forehooves for a moment as though in disbelief of their very existence before letting them fall uselessly into his lap. Scarlet turned her gaze skyward, squinting in the afternoon sunlight as she watched a cloud slowly drift by.

Twilight found herself at a loss for words. What are you supposed to say to a bunch of ponies you just met, who turn out to be aliens from another world, and also just discovered that they have no way to return home? As she turned to her companions, it seemed clear they had little to offer either; Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck, Rarity bit her lip, Pinkie Pie grinned and wagged her poofy tail…

“…”

Twilight’s brain had only barely finished registering this as strange before Pinkie began happily hopping up and down. “YAAY! Now we have enough time for a party!”

“Pinkie!” Twilight hissed. “What are you doing?”

Pinkie ceased her bouncing and gave Twilight an indignant look. “What do you mean, ‘what am I doing’? I’m gonna throw a party for three ponies who just found out they can’t go home! I’m not just gonna stand here and watch them being sad.”

“I don’t think now is really a good time for - ”

Twilight’s protest was quickly cut off by a soft giggle from Scarlet. “Actually… that sounds delightful, Pinkie.”

“I think a morale boost would do us wonders right now, yeah.” Tank gently ran his hoof through Waterwing’s mane, mollifying her enough to coax her into lifting her head and glancing in his direction. “Although we should probably look into finding a place to stay sooner rather than later…”

“Well shucks, no need to fret about that.” Applejack tipped her hat. “I’m sure we can arrange something, right? I bet Sweet Apple Acres has room for a sturdy earth pony who won’t mind helping out with a few chores.” She punctuated this sentence by giving Tank a knowing smirk.

Tank blinked, blushing lightly. “Oh! That… works out just fine for me. Thanks, Applejack.”

“Yeah! And I bet I know somepony who’d totally be up for an awesome sleepover!” Rainbow Dash gave the still-recovering Waterwing a gentle nudge and lowered her voice somewhat. “What do you say? I do still kinda owe you.”

Waterwing sat up, wiped a final tear from her cheek, and promptly wrapped Rainbow in a grateful hug.

Rainbow Dash nearly toppled backward in surprise. “Hey, hey! What did I say about sap?”

After enjoying an amused giggle, Twilight turned to Scarlet. “There’s a spare bedroll in the library you can borrow for a while. There’s gotta be a way to send you home somewhere, and with your help, I just know we’ll find it.”

Scarlet smiled softly and nodded. “I cannot thank you enough, Twilight.”

“Actually, we can go one better.” Tank took a step forward. “I mean, if we’re going to be stuck here indeterminately anyway…” He shrugged. “…then we might as well help you with those Elements in the meantime, right?”

Twilight beamed. “I can’t wait to see what your Elements are. This is so exciting! We should… oh!”

Waterwing tilted her head.

“I just remembered something.” Twilight glanced between the three companions. “Would you be willing to tell us your real names? Since I’m guessing the ones you gave us before were made up.”

Scarlet gave a short bow. “I am Scarlet Lombardia. Pleased to meet you.”

Tank offered a brief salute. “My name’s Alexander Abrams.” He then turned to Waterwing as she smiled and waved. “And this is Mirielle Marcus!”

Their introduction was met with six blank stares.

Rarity smiled awkwardly. “Those are, erm…”

“…mighty fine names, sure,” Applejack offered, “but I think they might stand out a bit too much.”

Twilight nodded. “It would probably be best to keep your story - and, um, those names - just between us. We don’t know how other ponies might react.”

Rarity brushed a stray hair back into place. “The ponies of Ponyville are good at heart, but they’re… a bit dense, perhaps, and very prone to gossip. We wouldn’t want anypony getting the wrong idea, you see.”

Tank sighed. “I guess that’s understandable, if kinda disappointing. I was hoping we could…”

Pinkie Pie tilted her head. “Could… what?”

Tank’s stomach gave a loud growl in protest of its emptiness. “I… just remembered food is a thing that exists.”

Scarlet smirked. “Perhaps we should return to the library for now? I suppose we ought to give those hayburgers an honest try this time.”

Waterwing nodded, licking her lips for emphasis.

Tank shrugged. “I guess. Man, being a herbivore is gonna take some getting used to.”

Twilight quirked an eyebrow. “Um… as opposed to what?”

Tank blinked. “Uh… I’ll explain later.”

“Okay, everypony!” Pinkie declared. “Meet me at Sugarcube Corner in two hours!” Without further ado, she sped off back toward town, a hot pink blur against the lush green landscape. The rest of the assembled ponies soon followed behind, albeit at a much more leisurely pace.

“There are all kinds of magical transportation options we could try,” Twilight explained. “Gateways, teleportation, warp portals…”

“I’m guessing one of those is what the Princess used to bring us back to town?” Tank mused.

Twilight nodded. “Precisely! Now, I’ve never heard of any of them being used to travel between worlds before, but it seems like the most logical starting place. I’ll have to see if Princess Celestia would be willing to send me a few extra books from my room back in Canterlot…”

“Um… Waterwing?”

At the sound of her voice, Waterwing landed gently beside Fluttershy.

“Do… you like animals?”

With a cheery grin, Waterwing nodded.

Fluttershy smiled softly. “Oh, thank goodness! I, um… take care of all kinds of animals back at my cottage. I can’t promise they’ll be anything like the ones from your world, but, um… if you wanted to come see them sometime…”

At this, Waterwing took to the air once again, flying in happy circles over Fluttershy’s head for a moment before returning to her side on the ground.

Rarity gently placed a hoof over Scarlet’s shoulder. “Do try to make yourselves comfortable while you’re here, darling. I’m sure Twilight will have you on your way home before you know it.”

Scarlet giggled softly. “With all this hospitality, it almost seems a greater concern that we might be hesitant to leave.” Her smile soon faded. “Though I do lament our inability to contact our loved ones; doubtless they would worry far less if they at least knew we were alive and unhurt.”

“That’ll just make your reunion all the sweeter,” Applejack suggested.

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash agreed, rolling over lazily in the air above them. “I mean, since we don’t usually have supervillains to fight off, Ponyville can get kind of boring sometimes… but it’s totally a cool place to stay. It’ll be loads of super awesome fun, I promise!”

Scarlet’s smile returned. “I look forward to it.”

Author's Note:

End of Episode 1. Stay tuned for more!

Comments

[Prismmirror]

I like the idea of this story, and your writing is good. You have decent 'cliche adventurer' characters set up with nice archetypes and potential for backstories. Yet then you fail to develop a plot. There are literally dozens of fanfictions that follow exactly this formula:

- Introduce new character(s).
- Follow the FiM plot with the new character(s) making pithy one-liners and stealing roles normally filled by other ponies in canon (and generally being superfluous).
- Continue following main plot religiously with only the occasional slice-of-life chapter showing your own creativity.

Sounds familiar, right? If I were you, I would do some brainstorming on what the rest of the world outside Equestria is like. It would certainly be a more appropriate place to drop some adventurer OCs, especially if you want them to develop personalities. There are a few fics that explore this (i.e. The Substitute Demon) and, while they aren't perfect, it is always interesting to see the different attempts at world-building made by different authors.

Those are rewarding to read because they have unique content. Your current story, while well written, gives me no reason to read it because the plot is so identical to the show (and thus inhibits real character growth by your OCs). By the time I'd finished reading your first chapter introductions of the OCs, I had literally read all of the content that actually was interesting and unique to you. Everything else was just empty filler (although your dialogue tweaks were of better quality than most).