Friendship Is Magic, Part 3

by Cii

Prologue

Prologue

Once upon a time, on the magical Equestria Islands, a bustling, yet rather small community of the two pony races thrived on the many different islands, those being the Earth ponies and the Unicorn ponies. They only had themselves and their families to take care of and have always lived in peace as far back as they can remember.

To the south of Ponyville on a family-owned farm, a door swung open as a unicorn mare named Hinawa and the youngest of her twin unicorn foals, Luca, walked out with her, as quiet as the young filly ever was.

Hinawa had a magenta coat and a cutie mark of a giant white heart with two smaller hearts hovering on either side of the larger one, both angled slightly outward. Both her mane and tail were long and straight, and dark-brown in color.

Luca had an orange coat with a long blond tail and a big blond mane, each ending with a slight twist at the end. She had not received her cutie mark yet, though she was still at a very young age and understandably would not have one appear until she was older.

Hinawa was levitating a group of three saddlebags onto her back as she walked outside, one for each of her twins and another for herself. An earth stallion with a dark-brown coat and a light-brown mustache -- whose mane was covered by his cowboy hat -- followed close behind the two fillies. He bore a cutie mark of a flintlock intertwined with a matchlock. His name was Flint, the husband of Hinawa and proud father of his beautiful twins. He stopped in the doorway and waved a hoof at two of the three most precious ponies in his life.

“I hope y’all have a fun time visiting grandpa,” he said, “And I’ll see ya in a just a few short days.” Claus, the older twin unicorn, raced out of his family’s house with the energetic air he always seemed to have around him, especially because of the colt’s young age. Claus had a light-blue coat with an orange mane and tail, much like Luca’s, but with the twist being in the middle of his mane, which was also pulled back slightly. Like his twin sister, he was also too young to have received a cutie mark just yet.

“I can’t wait to play with all of grandpa’s cows and pigs and chickens and the dragons in the valley, and--” The eldest of the twins exclaimed rather quickly, obviously excited about their departure.

“Hold on there, Claus,” Flint interrupted, “I don’t want ya to be playing around with those dragons, they’re a lot bigger than you and I don’t want ya to hurt yourself.”

“But dad, they’re really friendly and would never hurt anypony without any good reason.” Claus retorted, “Anyways, I only play-fight with them. They know we’re all just having fun.” The colt shot a wry glance at his younger twin sister, “Maybe I can even get Luca to actually play with us this time...” He chuckled under his breath. Luca met her brother‘s gaze and quickly looked back at the ground, sweeping a hoof at the dirt in an awkward silence.

“Okay, but at least be careful around them, I don’t want you two gettin’ hurt over there.” He said as he lowered his head so his hat covered his eyes.
Hinawa glanced backward at Flint and raised an eyebrow with a smile, “Excuse me, did you say 'two’? What about me?” she asked comically, “I suppose this third pony is just here for transportation purposes?” She laughed at her own sarcastic question.

“Of course not, I just meant, uh...you two groups of ponies! Eeyup! The adults group and the foal group.” Flint responded with a silly tone to his voice, though he kept his head lowered.

“I know honey, I’m only joking!” she said, “And don’t you worry, I’ll keep an eye on them as well as my dad.” She nuzzled Claus as he trotted up next to his mother.

“You father? Alec?” Flint looked back up with surprise and laughed, “You mean you’ll keep an eye on both our children and your father, don’t ya? Looks like you’ll have a lot of foalsitting these next few days!” He laughed until he noticed Hinawa was no longer nuzzling her foals, but glaring at Flint. He awkwardly ceased his laughter and cleared his throat.

“I mean, um...I’m sure you’ll both be a great team watching these two and I hope y’all have a wonderful time!”

Hinawa couldn’t help but laugh at her husband’s awkwardness, and at the sight of Hinawa laughing, Flint began as well, with Claus following suit so that everypony except Luca was enjoying a good laugh before eventually departing as the sun just began to set.

The three unicorn ponies left their home, heading north through Ponyville and further northwest through a nice, bright and beautiful forest. It was known as the Foreverfree Forest, a peaceful woodland home to nature’s usual animals like birds, deer, frogs, and the occasional group of bats or snakes.

After about an hour of walking through the woods, Luca, being the easily exhausted cryfilly she was became tired and asked to ride on her mother’s back for a short while. Hinawa, trying to be a loving mother that would do anything for her little foals, obliged and though she realized it would be an even more strenuous hike now, still carried Luca and each of their saddlebags on her back for the rest of their trip.

After almost three hours, Hinawa and her twin foals finally made it to her father’s farm, and Luca had already been asleep on her mother’s back for the better half of the trip.

Alec was already waiting for them on his porch, and told the three unicorns they could sleep for the night, since the moon rose a short while ago and he had beds already made. Alec was a unicorn pony as well, and had a grey coat with a light-brown mane and tail, and a white beard. He had a cutie mark of what appeared to be a set of various farming tools closely jumbled together in a pile, and he was wearing the same old hat he always wore, his flat-brimmed brown hat.

The two ponies that were still awake from the walk to the farm were tired, and accepted Alec’s offer of going straight to bed. They both trotted upstairs to Luca’s and Claus’ bedroom and Claus immediately flopped down onto his bed without even covering up, and was already half asleep. Hinawa levitated Luca off her back and into her own bed as she still slept. She levitated the covers over Luca and Claus, tucking them into their beds and unpacked their saddlebags as they slept, then headed back downstairs.

“So, how are your little foals doing? Pretty excited to be back? I’ve missed you all so much, you know.” Alec said to Hinawa once she departed from the twins’ bedroom, just to make small talk.

“Well, Claus seems very excited to play with your animals and with the dragons nearby. He’s always been full of energy and never seems to tire out from anything. He even walked the whole way here with me and didn’t seem fatigued at all until he laid down in his bed.” she responded.

“As for Luca, she still seems to be unmotivated and is usually crying about almost anything she has to do, as if she is always overwhelmed by any task. I mean, she isn’t depressed or anything, she is still cheerful most of the time, and has quite a few friends around, it’s just that she gives up too easily and never wants to do too much of anything when somepony asks her to. I’m not sure how to help her try to overcome that, nothing I’ve tried seems to work anymore...” Hinawa said sadly, and Alec put a hoof around her shoulder.

“Don’t you worry about it, she’ll grow out of it soon enough. Just get some sleep for the night, it’ll help clear your mind.” he said, and led her to the door to her room, “Just remember: give her some time to do things for herself and she’ll get better. Trust me.” Alec magicked the door open and let Hinawa go inside to get some well-deserved rest.

* * *

After a few days of playing at their grandfather’s farm, Luca and Claus finished getting ready for their last night they would spend at Alec’s, since they would be leaving the following evening. Once they climbed into bed and were just about to drift off to sleep, Luca mentally noted a sense of finality in the air, but not about the final night sleeping at her grandfather’s; this seemed to be of a much grander scale.

Nevertheless, Luca took one of the most wonderfully long and refreshing naps she ever had. Whether it was brought on by the unnerving feeling she felt as she began to drift off to sleep or not, she didn’t know. After what felt like quite a long time, her peaceful sleep was crudely destroyed by a sharp, loud knocking on the bedroom door the following morning. As Luca became more conscious while still keeping her eyes closed, she realized the loud knocking wasn’t coming from the bedroom door, but the front door, which just made the noise all the more noticeably louder.

“Luca! Are you still sleeping? Wake up!” Somepony called.

Oh, it’s Claus... Luca thought while still laying in bed, eyes closed, yet fully awake now.

“The dragons brought their baby over today so we can all play together! You’ve got to come out and play with us this time!”

Fine... Luca thought and rolled out of bed. She trotted over to the mirror and levitated her hairbrush and brushed her bed-head back to how she always kept it. As she brushed, she stared at her horn in the mirror, wondering why she couldn’t seem to execute any spells she had been taught, aside from the basic levitation that all unicorn fillies and colts learn by instinct at a very young age.

After finishing putting her slight twist in her mane in place, she headed downstairs to go play with Claus for once, since she had been making excuses the past few days as to why she couldn’t play with him.

We are leaving tonight anyway, I owe it to him to at least play once before we go, she figured. Anyway, there aren’t any more excuses to be busy with anymore.

Instead of playing with her adventurous brother during the past few days, she had said she was either busy helping Alec with the farm, busy picking some sunflowers with their mother to bring back home, or busy talking with the other animals on the farm. Luca seemed to have a natural talent with speaking to, and connecting with other animals, no matter what species they were, she understood them and they saw her as a kind pony. Hinawa was baking some apple pie in the oven and noticed Luca coming down the stairs.

“Good morning, Luca! Claus was just calling for you, he’s been playing with the dragons all morning and wanted you to play with him.” Hinawa said, “I’m making your favorite lunch snack: apple pie! So just go outside and give Claus some company, and I’ll come get you both when lunch is done, alright?” she smiled, and resumed cooking, not exactly waiting for Luca to respond, although they both knew the shy filly wouldn’t say anything anyway.

Luca stepped outside on the crisp, early hours of the morning and saw Alec working on the farm, as he usually did this early. He caught sight of Luca stepping out on the porch and after levitating his shovel and pail onto the ground, he trotted over to her and hugged her.

“You three are headed back home later, aren’t you?” he asked, “Oh, I’m gonna miss you after you leave; be sure to come back again soon, it was really nice to have you all here again.” Luca remained silent, but smiled and chuckled a slight bit. “If you were looking for Claus, he’s right over there, playing with the dragons.” Alec added, pointing a hoof toward the east, where the mountains began, and where the dragons lived.

Luca thanked Alec and walked over to the mountains just next to the farm. Just around the corner, there was Claus with the two dragons and their baby dragon, a small, green, happy baby dragon who apparently couldn’t speak yet. Claus spotted Luca and called her over to do some play-fighting, and Luca slowly walked over.

“This is how we play-fight, okay Luca?” Claus demonstrated and backed up slowly, “You just get a good running start...” he galloped straight toward the dragon, Wait--straight toward the dragon?! Luca thought, “And then just--” SLAM! Claus ran headfirst into the dragon, as the dragon roared and fell over on its side.

“Claus! Why did you--” Luca started, but stopped mid-sentence when the dragon got up and laughed, along with the baby dragon who enjoyed the sight of the play-fight, as it seemed.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” the dragon explained with a deep voice, “This is what we’ve been doing for a while, and it’s the first time our baby came along to watch.”

“Yeah, this is how the dragons and I have been having fun, and the baby likes to watch it too!” Claus explained as well, “The harder you run into them, the more they like it! Here, you try this time, Luca!”

“You’re sure about this?” Luca asked Claus.

“Yeah, it’s completely safe.”

“Okay, if you all say so...” Luca decided to try her hoof at it and took a few steps back as Claus did before, lined up with the father dragon and charged, galloping at top speed, and ran headfirst into the dragon and knocked him down. The dragon let out another loud, comical roar for his baby, who fell over on his back and started rocking back and forth from laughter.

“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?" Claus asked, “Pretty fun, huh?"

“Yeah...that actually was fun!" Luca exclaimed.

Alec and Hinawa appeared from around the corner of the mountain.

“Okay, my little ponies,” Hinawa called, “Breakfast is ready! Say goodbye to your dragon friends!” The ponies said their goodbyes to the dragons, and the dragons to the ponies before all going their separate ways.

After having breakfast together and helping Alec with the farm once more, the ponies went in to begin packing their saddlebags to head back home.

“You’re planning on leaving already?” Alec asked with concern, “But it’s still early!”

“I know, but we have to leave a little bit earlier to get back home in time, we still have to go through the Foreverfree Forest and all, dad.” Hinawa explained.

“Oh, come on! I’m sure these little foals would be okay here, the forest is so peaceful,” Alec laughed and added, “I’d bet even cowardly little Luca could live out here on her own, it’s just so nice and peaceful out here!” Hinawa noticed a piece of paper with a quill and ink all bundled together in her saddlebag, with which she meant to write a note to Flint to let him know they would be on their way back soon, and to look out for them. She levitated the quill, paper and ink in front of her and walked out the front door.

She relished the cool late-morning air on her smooth coat and finally set her paper and ink nearby as she dipped her quill and began to write as Luca and Claus continued packing their saddlebags.

“Dear Flint,

Just as you thought, the foals were running all around the farm and mountains, helping dad with the farm ever since we got here a few days ago.

Claus is still an adventurous colt and is always full of energy as he ever was (he must take after his father), and Luca is still reserved and quiet most of the time. But they both seem to love helping around the farm as well as playing, neither one of them seem to tire from it all.

Dad seems sad to say goodbye to his grandfoals after being able to see them for the first time in quite a while, but he’s been worrying about us leaving since we got here. Either way, we should be back home by this evening.

After being around the sheep back home for so long, I forgot how nice and refreshing the mountain air feels in comparison to back home, I wish you would have been able to come this time.

How about next time we decide to come back up you can come along and I’ll just get somepony else to watch our sheep; we should really be up here all together as a family.

We were all thinking about you the whole time we were up here; Claus, Luca and I (and even Alec asked how you were). When we get back hopefully around dinnertime, I’ll make something with your favorite ingredient: apples! How does that sound?

Anyway, we’ll see you tonight!

With love, your dearest Hinawa”

Hinawa tied the note onto a carrier pigeon with her telekinesis and sent it off to Flint. She watched the bird fly south through the trees in the direction of her home, and started inside to check on her foals.

Just before she magicked the front door open however, a group of pony-sized shadows zoomed across the sky with the...wings? ...Attached to them and in an instant passed over Alec’s house, much too quickly for Hinawa to see what exactly they were. It followed the path her carrier pigeon took, going south into the forest. Hinawa assumed it was a type of small dragon judging by its wing size. She walked back inside and went to gather the twin foals and go on back home.