The Pony That Never Was

by Scootareader

Chapter 1 - Enigma Arrives

“Last call for Ponyville! Next stop: Fillydelphia!”

Enigma rushed to finish gathering her things from the baggage car of the train. Her cyan-colored mane kept falling into her eyes, the curls bouncing around her face and attempting to obscure her vision from her belongings. She continually pushed the curls back and finished taking her things off the train before requesting a dolly from one of the conductors, who promptly disappeared and reappeared with an old, rickety-looking dolly.

As she loaded her things onto the cart, a picture fell from one of her overflowing bags and crashed to the ground, cracking the frame and the glass protecting the picture inside. She tsk'ed herself for not being more careful and picked up the picture, looking at it. It was of her, her soft, lightly-colored lavender coat gleaming in the light of Celestia's day, and a stallion next to her, looking at the ground demurely, as if unsure whether he should be there, his red coat and carrot-orange mane splashes of color on his plain, small frame. She sighed and put the picture back in its bag. She missed Cottontooth terribly.

An hour later, she pulled her cart of belongings in front of an empty house. It looked used, but not run-down; it was a verdant green with a shiny red door on it. She used the key given to her by the landlord she'd been meeting with in Canterlot and opened the front door, depositing her pile of things just inside the door where the living room appeared to be, and vowing to have them sorted out and put in their place by this time tomorrow. After all, this was her new home.

It wasn't as if she'd left Canterlot on bad terms, anyway. She was never one of the nobility. She was your average, run-of-the-mill pony, scraping bits together to make payments and occasionally sneak into one of the dumpsters behind one of the many shops to scavenge a few scraps and sate her rumbling stomach. That was life for everypony who wasn't upper class; not a bad life, but not the life she wanted.

She came to Ponyville because less snobby ponies would probably be more enthused about her talents. It was all showcased by her cutie mark: A big yellow question mark outlined in black. There had been plenty of jokes told, especially by school bullies, about how nopony could find out what her special talent was, even her. They were mistaken, of course; this was proven by her ability to make a puzzle, riddle, or game off the top of her head that would blow their minds with its complexity. She wasn't a practical joker, or a detective, or a genius; she just really liked mysteries.

After unpacking for an hour, she decided she would explore the town a little bit and see what it had to offer. She left her house, locking the door behind her, and set off for the biggest part of town. It was a beautiful summer day, all of the windows to the houses were open and letting fresh sunlight grace their rooms, ponies were unhurriedly moving from location to location, and fillies were laughing and screaming and playing simple games in the streets. This was definitely a happy town.

The first storefront to catch her interest was a garish building that looked like it was made out of candy. She entered the store, immediately hit with a wave of wonderful-smelling baked goods. She smelled cupcakes, cakes, tarts, scones... if you had a name for it and it required an oven, it was lending its scent to the warm, muggy air.

A bright pink pony with a mane curlier than hers popped out from behind the counter. “Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name?”

“Well, uh... it's Enigma. I just moved in.”

“Enigma? That's a weird name! Why'd your parents call you that?”

“Well, when I was just born, I disappeared from the hospital for 2 hours. Nopony could find me, and my parents were really scared, but then I just crawled out from behind one of the doors to my mom and they never knew where I'd gone. So, they called me Enigma.”

“Wow! That's fascinating! So, where are you--” Pinkie Pie then gave a very loud gasp and bolted out the front doors of the shop.

Enigma gave a concerned look toward the door Pinkie Pie had just exited from, then shrugged and rang the bell on the counter. A light-blue pony with a wavy pink mane and tail arrived from the back and said, “Oh, hello there... have we met?”

“No, ma'am! I just moved in to Ponyville today.” Enigma glanced toward the front door again. “Is Pinkie Pie usually this odd?”

The light-blue pony gave a knowing chuckle. “Oh, that's just Pinkie Pie. I'm Cup Cake, by the way. My husband, Carrot, and I run the store here. Was there something you wanted?”

Enigma gave Mrs. Cake an amused look. “Yeah. What's the name of this shop?”

“Oh, well, it's Sugarcube Corner! Pinkie never said that?”

“She bolted away before I could ask her.” Enigma's stomach rumbled as she fell silent, reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything all day. “Anyway, it's a good thing I came here first! Um, do you mind if I try a riddle out on you?” Mrs. Cake nodded hesitantly. “Good! Now, just give me a moment--” Enigma scribbled a few things on a piece of paper, tapped her hoof against her cheek thoughtfully for a moment, scribbled a few more notes, then exclaimed, “Done!” and produced her riddle:

“Created in fire, but now covered in ice,
We number by the dozens, yet stand alone,
Spiraling toward the sky, but unable to fly,
The sweet friend of fillies Equestria over.
What am I?”

Mrs. Cake glanced around, confused, and said, “Um... well... I wouldn't even know how to guess that!”

Enigma smiled knowingly, and proclaimed the answer: “A cupcake!”

Mrs. Cake exhibited a nervous smile before saying, “Oh, is that what you'd like?”

“Yes, please! One dozen pink cupcakes, if that's all right.”

After making her purchase and formally introducing herself, Enigma thanked Mrs. Cake for the cupcakes and exited Sugarcube Corner, already munching on one of the tasty treats. She was then very quickly assaulted by a Pinkie Pie wearing a poorly made disguise. It looked like she'd attempted to put on a mask that would hide her face, but it was only partially made and had several threads sticking out of the unfinished side. She was wearing an old-looking brown cloak that only reached to halfway down her legs. Upon seeing Enigma leave Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie rushed up and said, “Miss, I need your help with... something! And only you can help me!”

Enigma asked worriedly, “Pinkie Pie, what's wrong? Why do you need me?”

Pinkie gave another gasp, as if she were astonished over something Enigma had said. “Who told you!?”

“Um... told me what?”

“Aha! Just as I thought!” Pinkie Pie ran behind Enigma and started pushing her. “I need you at your house right now! Something.... something has happened!”

After a minute or two of hurried trotting, they arrived at Enigma's house, and she went to her front door, which was already cracked open. Pushing it open, she glanced inside, then was quickly pushed inside by Pinkie Pie to a dark room. “Ah! Hey, what gives? Where's the lights?”

All of a sudden, the lights were flipped on, and an entire roomful of ponies yelled, “SURPRISE!” And then, everything went dark again.

When she woke up, Enigma was in her new bed, looking up at the ceiling. She had a bump on her head that hadn't been there before. The room wasn't much spectacular, or the bed. Just a plain feather bed and blank brown walls, as expected. This house definitely wasn't a steal. A house for plain ponies, like her. She liked it.

Pinkie Pie was no longer wearing her haphazard disguise, noticing quickly that she'd awoken, and jumped excitedly onto Enigma's bed, going nose to nose with her and exclaiming, “Ooh, you're awake! Was it my fault you fainted? I'm sorry! You told me you just moved in to Ponyville and I was thinking of how much you'd like to be thrown a surprise party on your first day here and I was planning on introducing you to everypony at your party but now I can't because you don't feel well and you should probably be resting but I wore my really good disguise and you didn't recognize me and I thought you would be totally surprised but then you fainted and then I carried you up here with some help and then I volunteered to stay and watch over you until you woke up and then tell you everything that happened! And then you woke up and I asked if you were awake and if it was my fault you fainted and then I said I was sorry and that you'd just moved in to Ponyville and I had been thinking of how much you'd like to be thrown a surp--”

Enigma raised her hoof, stopping Pinkie Pie's explanation. “I'm fine, Pinkie. It's just a little bump on my head. I don't really faint much, but I'm fine now.” She gave Pinkie Pie a warm smile. “How about you introduce me to everypony waiting downstairs?”

As she made her way down the stairs, an excited Pinkie Pie bouncing down behind her, Enigma got her first good look at all of the ponies who'd been invited. There were so many of them! Canterlot had plenty of parties, sure, but... only high-class ponies got to attend. And it wasn't from the outside looking in this time, either: She was the center of attention for what felt like the first time in her life. It felt good.

A roar went up from the crowd of ponies gathered below her, ranging from “Are you fine?”'s to “We were so worried about you!”'s. She gave a happy smile, but said nothing, while Pinkie Pie fired away replies of “She's fine! Really!” and “I know! I talked to her about it!”

The first pony to approach Enigma and introduce herself was colored in almost the same shade of purple that Enigma was. “Greetings! My name is Twi--”

Pinkie Pie interjected with, “Twilight Sparkle! She's one of my very best friends here in Ponyville! I just know the two of you will get along really well! Ooh, this is so exciting!” She then bounced off as Twilight gave Enigma a nervous smile.

“That's just Pinkie being Pinkie. You get used to it. So... your name is Enigma?”

Enigma gave Twilight a smile. “Yeah... that's me. I'm really good at making puzzles and riddles, so if you know anypony who wants a challenge...”

Twilight looked excited at this. “I love solving puzzles! Maybe you can make me one sometime?”

“Can I!” Enigma produced another small piece of paper and drew a small diagram on it that was a series of dots. “This is written in a secret code I just made up in my head. I wrote it in just such a way that you can figure out what it says, if you try hard enough. Try to find out what it says and tell me what it is! If you don't think you can get it, just come back to me and let me know and I'll explain the whole thing to you.”

Twilight clapped her hooves together excitedly and said, “I'll get to work decoding it first thing in the morning! Maybe I'll even have one for you to figure out!”

After a few more hours, well after it was dark out, things started winding down, and the multitude of ponies began to trickle out. Enigma had learned more ponies' names than she thought she could remember in a lifetime, and she'd given everypony a few riddles to consider for the evening. She'd made her mark; it was only a matter of time before ponies began to offer money for her talents and she would be able to live in peace for the first time in a long time.

Enigma sighed happily and trotted back up the stairs to her bed. She'd clean her house and unpack first thing in the morning. She laid her head down on her pillow and drifted off to a peaceful, happy sleep.

MacrossRarity is best brony friend.
--Your faithful editor/fanfic writer, Scootareader

Comments

[DARKPHANTOM13]

Interesting, lets see where this goes. And you base the titile from "The World that Never Was" from Kingdom Hearts didn't you

[Solar Flicker]

Isn't... isn't this basically Background Pony?

[Mitsubishi Colt]

Comments while reading:

They were mistaken, of course; this was proven by her ability to make a puzzle, riddle, or game off the top of her head that would blow their minds with its complexity. She wasn't a practical joker, or a detective, or a genius; she just really liked mysteries.

This...will be interesting.

“Well, when I was just born, I disappeared from the hospital for 2 hours. Nopony could find me, and my parents were really scared, but then I just crawled out from behind one of the doors to my mom and they never knew where I'd gone. So, they called me Enigma.”

Sounds to me like a homage to Agatha Christie.

After-reading:
Nice beginning. Although I'm not so much a fan of OC's I will give this story a chance. Consider me intrigued at least.