Chapter One

Sitting alone among a few other ponies in the front row 1st class train cart was Mythic Duke, a light brown stallion in his early
40's who is a well known for his works as a librarian, professor, and for what he does for the Baltimare community. He was reading articles about Van-Hoover's Ponerton islet, and how in the past it was a mysterious place for many ponies for many years. But what had caused the baffling confusion for most ponies was the mansion on Ponerton Islets.

The first thing was about the owners of the mansion. It was originally bought and owned by a millionaire who had an obsession with yachting, but his 3rd wife was a bad sailor so eventually the stallion had to put up the house for sale. The house was eventually bought but to whom was the mystery. It was rumored to have been bought by a Mr. Owen, which Mythic Duke thought to be such a dull name. Rumors also had it back than that the mansion was bought by the film star Miss. Turl, and the reason why she bought the mansion was because she wanted to stay free from all the publicity for a few months. Some even thought that it was royalty who bought the place! But than, another mystery took place, a more sinister one. 10 guests were invited to that island and a few days later....All ten of the guests were found dead, and no pony ever found out what had happened or who the killer was. This had happened over 2 decades ago and still no pony had put the pieces together. All of this to Mythic was a metaphorical goose chase for any pony who tried to crack the mysterious case of the Ponerton Islet mansion.

Mythic sighed as he put down the article down and reached for his glass of champagne, recalling on why he was going to this
mysteriously sinister islet. He recalled getting the letter from apparently a wealthy pony he had never heard of before named "Mr. Aurora", inviting him to the islet to discuss charity for education and also charity for libraries across Equestria, especially in Baltimare. Mythic looked out the train cars window, while taking a sip of his Champagne. He watched as the vast landscape of Unicorn Range passed by, making a note to himself that he still had a couple of hours before he made it to VanHoover and to Ponerton Islet. Luckily he didn't have to be there until 12 o'clock, and it was roughly nine o'clock. In all honesty though, Mythic was more interested in exploring the mansion it really, he was enthralled by this mysterious mansion and the history of this Islet, And hey, maybe he could even try cracking the case open himself. But for now, he would just put his champagne glass away and go back to reading the articles of VanHoover's Ponerton Islet.

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Sitting a few rows away from Mythic Duke in the 1st class train car, the unicorn mare Emerald Spice and her earth pony husband
Maverick Brisks were having a conversation about the invitation.

"Oh Maverick, I do hope all of this goes well! These ideas for charity can be wonderful for Equestria! Especially for our Hope foundation!"
Beamed the middle aged mare, Emerald Spice, The middle aged stallion adjusted his neck pillow.

"Well, yes darling, I am quite happy that this is happening, but I still can't shake off the fact that we have to go to that sinister mansion on Ponerton Islets, I honestly don't know why this "Mr. Aurora" chose that islet specifically. I'd honestly prefer if this meeting would be held in Canterlot" He sighed, taking a drink of water from the (seats?) cup.

Emerald frowned a little in concern for Maverick, than she put her hooves comfortingly on Maverick Brisks hoof,

"Please Maverick, try not to think of that, Mr. Aurora is doing this to make sure that we are all safe, besides, this will only be for a few days! So after this, we can just go straight back to Canterlot and to the hospital. I'm also sure that the fillies and colts there are just fine, we do have an amazing staff at the hospital."

Maverick sighed a little than put his other hoof on his wives, looking at her with a more reassuring look, "Your right Emerald, I guess I am just worrying too much."

With that, Maverick Brisks kissed his wife with gratitude on the cheek, than turned back to resting in that comfy ass neck pillow. Emerald smiled, just looking at her husband for a little bit. Maverick felt her stare and opened one eye to meet her gaze.

"Yes darling, what is it?" Maverick questioned, having a little bit of a confused face on why his wife was staring at him so...he just couldn't put the words together, probably because of being to relaxed right now (Or maybe just not knowing the word for it ._.). Emerald gave a little chuckle.

"You know Maverick, for 32 years we have been through so much together, through hardships and all, you've always been with me no matter what. Also not to mention all the hard work we've done to get to here at this point. We're finally going to be able to start something beautiful for fillies and colts in need with the Hope foundation. For everything we went through Maverick, it was worth it."

Emerald moved closer to Maverick and cuddled into his hoof, closing her eyes with a grateful smile on her face. Maverick looked down at her, smiling softly, keeping her close to him, he rested in his neck pillow and drifted off to a nap, thinking everything will work out in the end. (Well, the futures gonna suck ass for them, am i right fellas?)

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Shooting Moon waited anxiously in the regular train car given to ponies who pay the regular fee, looking out the window seeing
Unicorn Range's beautiful display pass by. The season was spring so all of the flowers were blooming in the region of Unicorn Range. It's flowers were a diverse mix of reds, blues, yellows and purples all while also mixed into the beautiful light shade of grass, all of which being gently blown by the wind. Also not to mention the mountains far away in the background putting the cherry on top, making a spectacular scenery! If Shooting Moon were ever to retire being an explorer, this is were she would love to live. Though, all of this excitement was only being shown mentally.

Shooting Moon yawned, stretching her wings out and rubbing her eyes, barely getting any sleep from being on the
train...trains, she always hated trains. She would have walked to VanHoover if she didn't get that invitation so late, but than again, she was in the Everfree forest. But thankfully still, a mail mare actually went into the Everfree to give her that letter, for that, Shooting Moon gave that grey pegasus a very good word at the mail mare's work place, disregarding the fact that mail mare crashed into Shooting moon when they first met.

When Shooting Moon did read that note however, she was invited because a Mr. Aurora wanted to fund her to travel OUTSIDE of Equestria and specifically more towards the west! Ever since that big discovery of a land with ponies just like Equestira's ponies, and the fact that they speak like Equestrian ponies, she has been yearning to travel west and see new lands. But she almost missed the dead line of this gathering for charity or whatever, so she decided to sacrifice her comfort for probably a life time of adventure!

Despite all her excitement mentally though, she still had to try to get some sleep physically. So, she brought her bag closer to her and opened it, shuffling through her unorganized of journals and Daring Doo merchandise, pulling out a sleep mask, she put it on and at least tried to get some sleep.

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Sky Lines sat in a taxi cab looking over her petitions and doing paperwork all at once. Sky Lines had been doing an endless amount of work it felt like, trying to push 2 ideas through to Princess Celestia, one being that there should be more protection in smaller towns and putting the new reformed changlings into use. But the thing is sadly, nothing is ever easy with politics.

Others are arguing about how "Towns are fine on their own" and how it's "Too costly", and than with the new type of changlings most cities and towns don't even trust them still, and Ponyville has been the only major place that even accepts them. Well, Sky Lines couldn't blame them for having suspicion about the changlings, due to their infamous past. But now they're reformed! If these ponies can't fathom the thought of these new changlings, than they would be the ones in the wrong! Most of all though, it would be a wasted opportunity if they just didn't even give them a chance.

As for more protection in smaller towns, it's naive to even think that everything will be just fine leaving those towns that are left to fend for themselves. Yes, it was usually rare when a pony was injured or worse by the wild animals or Celestia knows what out in the untamed lands, but Sky Lines feared the day where an unfortunate town would be savagely attacked and that's when all of Equestria finally get a dose of reality that their towns aren't even secure.

Sky Lines shuddered just a little at the thought. But luckily fate had shined on her for once during this long political battle, she received an invitation from a Mr. Aurora, to come to VanHoover at Ponerton Islet to discuss about bringing awareness too her proposition and giving her funding to continue pushing the proposition. When she received this invitation, it was a sight for sore eyes, because in all honesty, half of her stress was even wondering if she'd be able to get the propositions through. All that work for nothing? Sky Line would never be able to accept that. Taking a little break from the paper work, she'd look at the stallion who was "driving" the cab.

"Excuse me Sir, but how long until we arrive to VanHoover's Luna Bay?" asked Sky Line, purposefully not mentioning Ponerton Islets
and beginning to pull out her own pocket watch.

"Uh, lets see here...Ah yeah, we left Tall Tale a while ago so I say bout 30 to 50 minutes, give or take ma'am." Answered the Stallion driving the yellow cab.

Sky Line nodded her head in acknowledgement as she looked at her pocket watch, the watch said it was 10 o'clock. Good, still going to be on time, and if not, a little early. Since there was still time Sky Lines adjusted her glasses, gave here horn a good massage with some of the good shit lotion, and went back to working on the paper work.

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Sitting in the Royal Celestial carriage, General Rapid Hooves, one of Celestia's military Generals was traveling to VanHoover with a
few bodyguards watching all flanks of the carriage. General Rapid Hooves was one of the newer Generals Celestia had appointed him for his quick thinking wits, and leadership during a large skirmish with a pack of the old type of Changlings, of course it wasn't lethal, but the princesses usually wanted to keep things hush hush when it came to violence and battles.

When Gen. Rapid Hooves was appointed though, he immediately wanted to start a more elite branch because during the battle, the Royal Guards were disorganized and failing to fight back the changlings before Rapid Hooves stepped in. This elite branch he wanted to start would be based off of multiple fighting tactic's by masters of that art, and have new fighting equipment to work with, especially the equipment that the newly found western country used during their... well, war against each other.

The thing that started the war in the New Western Country Gen. Rapid Hooves recalled was the previous ruler of the land had died from unknown causes and he had 2 sons, one ruling over the north and one ruling the south. Of course they both wanted to rule over the land so they decided to have a war, but this was no where near the type of wars Equestria has...The soldier's on opposing sides actually killed each other. That's what most Equestrian ponies feared about this land and these ponies, the fact that those ponies actually killed terrified the living Tarterus out of them. Luckily the war was finally ended when Celestia had caught some "magical" wind of the horrors and stopped the war immediately. Thank Celestia that Celestia came out fine and ended the feud, but still on the other hoof, thousands of ponies died fighting that war.

Even though the whole situation was a horrid, Gen. Rapid Hooves saw some light in this situation, the equipment and the veterans who wanted to move to Equestria. He wanted to put both of those elements into use for his program, but there were 2 issues, one was that it was a pain in the flank to get either the ponies at the newly found land or the equipment they used to even get to Equestria due to the paperwork and Bits they have to spend to come to Equestria (only 15 to 30 ponies from the new found western land were coming in per month, and few to none were veterans). Secondly, the Princesses were very much against having these new weapons in use and was also against having the new and more elite militarized branch coming into play. When Gen. Rapid Hooves proposed this idea to the Princesses, they absolutely refused to the idea of having these new weapons coming into the Royal Army, as for the more elite branch, they simply said that he was given permission to try but the Princesses refused to fund it.

Thus why Gen. Rapid Hooves is even going to VanHoover to come to this "Charity" session or whatever it said in the invitation. Apparently a wealthy pony named Mr. Aurora has heard of the idea and wished to fund it, and also bring awareness too this idea with other ponies. Gen. Rapid Hooves really wasn't considering going due to his past experiences with attempted funding, but there was one thing that he saw in the invitation that made him do it. Apparently during the meeting for charity, an actual young veteran from the New Western Land war was coming to this meeting on Ponerton Islets, and what made this even better was the fact that he was actually a war hero! Gen. Rapid Hooves couldn't let this opportunity go to waste, besides, he had to face it, he was desperate really. He didn't have enough bits to try running the
program on his own, he tried to get the program out but it really wasn't going anywhere, but this meeting can possibly be the start of his
new branch, heck, if he was lucky, he could even get that war hero in to train recruits who signed up for it.

Gen. Rapid Hooves came back from his thoughts to reality looking around at his surroundings and then to his personnel (or, some word like ponynnel, idk, your choice).

"Corporal! How much more time until we reach VanHoover?" Barked Rapid Hooves, checking his own pocket watch.

"Sir, we left Tall Tale an hour ago so my estimate of time when we get to VanHoover is in 20 minutes, getting through the city to Luna Bay will take another 10 minutes sir." The Corporal responded, as he watched over the other guards and area.

Gen. Rapid Hooves put away his pocket watch, and silently leaned to the back of the seat, waiting patiently.

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Leaning on the railings of the docks, Forging Oaks looked out into Luna Bay, watching the waters calm motions, glistening in the
morning sun, hearing the waves light and gentle crash mixed in with the seagulls squawks. Forging Oaks could see why some pony would want to live in VanHoover, just to come over to and enjoy the view of the bay. This place would be Forging Oaks second option, but for him, Apple Loosa was his place. Once he had gotten to Equestria, he moved too Apple Loosa and started his own carpentering business, and the ponies there were one of the more accepting ponies in all of Equestria for ponies coming in from the "New Western Lands" they called it.

Well anyways, it was still beautiful here, and he wouldn't mind living here. But, he has heard of the Ponerton Islet incident, make no
mistake. Ponies started moving out of VanHoovers coast because they assumed it was bad luck to even be near the Islet, and even
worse luck to be on the Islet, ESPECIALLY in the mansion, but this was all just superstition though. Ponerton Islets, 10 ponies murdered in a mansion without a single clue to who it was, this disturbed many ponies just by hearing about it.

Sadly though, Forging Oaks wished he had more of a shock out of it, but really...he was used to the thought of death. Ever since the war...the booming sounds...the crackling fires of destruction...the screams...THE BLOOD! Forging Oaks stopped thinking immediately, shaking his head from these thoughts as sweat had began dripping down from his face. He quickly pulled out a small bottle of pills from his uniform and popped some into his mouth, slowly calming him down.

He looked at the relaxant pills, with a mix of gratitude these pills exists and distress knowing that he was addicted to these, wishfully thinking maybe, just maybe, if he took enough, all the trauma would go away. But he knew better, this was only numbing the pain,
and it slowly is starting to take more and more pills for the medication to work. Sooner or later he might end up being an alcoholic again if these pills won't work anymore. Forging Oaks shivered at the thought of the, "Forging Oaks, one of the Greatest war heroes alive! Ponies he cared about dying all around him but he pulled out alive! Only to be a few years later a drunken slob on the streets."

Forging Oaks shook his head, is this where he really is now in life? Worrying about what could happen? Forging Oaks took a deep breath and looked back out into the bay, taking a moment to rejuvenate himself again. Hey, even if it were to come to that, he would have his few friends he made in Apple Loosa right by his side to help him. But for now, Forging Oaks would try to just worry about this meeting he was invited to or "Charity."

There was one thing that he really didn't understand though, the invitation given to him was rather...vague. The invitation just said that he was invited to Vanhoover Ponerton Islet at Luna Bay, said that he was needed to help out in some sort of charity run, and that all of his traveling fees would be paid for. Forging Oaks when he read the letter, at first he wasn't thinking of going but after a little more thinking he decided why the hay not, he needed a vacation anyways. It would be especially nice to get away from his home too because for the love of Celestia he would be border line harassed to join Equestira's military as a higher rank, Especially from this one General who was trying to start this "more elite" program, he was the worse. But he did see why they wanted him, but he was done with the military, he had his fair share and it scarred him for life.

Forging Oaks fixed his uniform and began to trot along to dock where all of the other party members were to meet, he figured it was about time to start heading over to the dock. Oaks wondered how the others would be like, if they were going to be snobs or decent ponies, either way hopefully, he could make some more companions.

Author's Note:

AH! And we are done with *most* of the introductions, please have mercy because this is my second attempt ever at writing a story, the first was absolute shit. But please, if you give me criticism or help, I'm sure we can make something good out of this story. So please have at it, and give me advice please.
As for what most of the ponies look like, here ya go. ---> http://imgur.com/a/ZPvI4

(P.s. I liked this story to give me better self esteem )
P.p.s - If this gets 5 likes i'll do another chapter or if there's comments that say "Go on Good Sir! Write like the wind!"