Part 1: Gone
It was a nice day, ages ago. At that time, I was around 10 years old and my brother was 7. We were just getting home from playing and goofing around in the nearby fields and such. All that laughter and lightheartedness seemed like a distant dream.
My family used to live in the outskirts of the small villages of the Earth Ponies. My parents just wanted to get away from the society and live in seclusion for some reason I didn’t know back then. My brother and I never really had a huge problem with that since we would always be able to play with each other in the vast fields surrounding our house. The fields were an amazing place. They were like a blank canvas for my brother and me to paint stories of grand battles and epic adventures with our imagination. It was here we both taught ourselves to use magic.
Our front door was wide open for some reason. It was strange to see out since my parents were so fussy about things like that. I certainly didn’t remember forgetting to close the door on our way out and my brother was the same. Even though it was just an open door, it was unsettling, almost creepy in a way.
My brother and I cautiously entered the doorway, but there was nothing there. Nothing? That is impossible! Our parents never go outside the house let alone keep the house wide open unattended. This must have been a dream is what I thought to myself. My brother pinched me just to check if it was reality. Unfortunately, it was.
My brother and I checked around the house and found no one home. It was a miracle! We were left home to ourselves! Well, I was worried about my parents, but I knew they could take care of themselves. I trusted that they were safe, but more importantly, my brother and I were home alone.
We brainstormed about what things we could do at home with no supervision. We could run through the hallway without being scolded! We could cook a meal and probably burn perfectly good ingredients to crisps! We could even jump on our beds! The possibilities were endless, but my brother had an absolutely genius idea. We could go in our parent’s study and read about magic!
Our parents were both unicorns. We occasionally saw them read spell books in their study, but we were forbidden to read the books or even enter the study. Our parents wouldn’t teach us magic or even talk about magic, but my and my brother’s curiosity were overbearing. We needed to know magic to get closer to our parents, and the only way we could learn was to teach ourselves from scratch. We both got as far as casting a telekinesis spell, but nothing more advanced than that.
Now it was our chance! It was our chance to learn magic from the books, from the magical masters of the world! We opened up the book. The book’s pages seemed to gleam gold in our imaginations. Inside the book, strange symbols were printed on the pages. We looked puzzled at the letters on the page. Oh yeah! We couldn’t read! How could we have forgotten?
My brother and I laughed heartily and put away the book on the shelf. I guess we weren’t ready to bear the secrets of the magic book of wonders. We walked back into the hallway, and suddenly, it hit us like a falling boulder. We were alone. Where were our parents anyway?
We waited and waited, but there was no sign of anypony coming back. We panicked only slightly though. It was nighttime and our parents were still nowhere to be seen. It was terrifying without our parents. The house felt like a prison. It was cold, dark, and damp like a cell. It started to get difficult to even breathe.
We heard hoofsteps outside, and I looked out the window to see it was our parents. It wasn’t them. It was a dark, hooded figure strolling towards our house like a ghost. My brother and I fled to our room and hid under our beds, hoping that the hooded figure would just pass by and leave us alone. We heard the hoofsteps enter our house and glide through our hallway. It passed our bedroom and seemed to have entered the study. The steps stopped for a moment and continued on back through the hallway and escaped outside. My brother and I trembled during the entire process.
We were terrified and continued to stay under our beds for the rest of the night, eventually passing out due to fatigue. The next morning, we got out from under our beds and looked through the house again, but it was still empty. We also checked the study again and found that the magical book of wonders was taken by the ghost. It was a fair trade for our lives. We both sighed and cooked ourselves a burnt breakfast.
We decided to go outside and play once again. Maybe if we wait long enough our parents will simply come back like nothing happened. We played out in the fields for a few hours until lunch time, but our parents were still not home. We went out and played again till dusk, but our parents were still not home. Finally as nighttime struck, the fact hit us plainly. Our parents were gone. Where? Who knows…
There was only one option for us to take. We must seek help from somepony. Kids couldn’t survive by themselves, especially with a killer ghost on the loose! The only place we knew that was close was an Earth Pony town across a forest. Our parents called it the “Everfree Forest” and said to never enter through it no matter what, but we needed to now. We didn’t have a choice!
We entered the forest post haste, making sure to pack and travel with all the essentials. We left behind the prison of a house and set forth on a journey. This time it was a real one, not a fable of our imaginations. The forest was rugged and difficult to travel though, but we pushed forward. Often I had to help my brother, but he helped me back, our telekinesis spells came in handy many times. The forest wasn’t nearly as dangerous as my parents made it out to be! It’ll be a piece of cake to travel through.
I made sure to bring my cape. It was my favorite piece of clothing, and I made it myself. It was decorated with a star and crescent moon pattern. I just had to add some bells on it though to give it that extra flare and charm. As we traveled through the forest I heard the bells of the cape within the satchel around my back. It gave a beat to each step I took and helped motivate me to continue going through the forest.
We were almost at the end of the forest when disaster struck. A manticore, easily 10 times the size of both me and my brother combined, appeared out of nowhere and attacked us. It had ferocious fangs and sharp claws. My brother and I both combined our magic to capture the manticore in our telekinesis spell, but the manticore’s pure power broke our combined spell. Things seemed to be the bleakest it has ever been. Regrets and sadness overflowed my mind until something snapped. A magical surge, like a broken dam, rushed out my body. My brother said that my entire body was shining like a star and my eyes were glowing like a blazing fire. The magic was both empowering and terrifying at the same time. I shot away the manticore like kicking a small pebble, but the surge kept on going. I couldn’t control it one bit. My brother ran up to me and bucked me right in the stomach to stop my magical rampage. I still faintly feel that kick till this day. Ouch…
My brother and I finally made it to the Earth Pony village, but it was nothing like I imagined. Ponies were charging down the streets selling and buying fruits and vegetables. It was utter chaos. Everyone was shouting to just talk to the person in front of them. Bits and fruit were flying through the sky. I heard ponies screaming about something called a sale or an out of stock. It was nothing that I have ever seen before. It was the end of the fall harvest at the time and ponies were stocking up on food to survive the long winter. Earth Ponies were scrambling to buy every last scrap of dried fruit.
We walked into the market place. Us being unicorns attracted attention. We were apparently invading on an Earth Pony village or some nonsense like that. I went up to some stores with my brother to ask for scraps of food, but we were violently rejected each time, some bucked us away. Eventually a group of earth colts and fillies found us and started beating on us and teasing us because of our horns. My brother and I lashed back at them, and they all ran away laughing. I’ve never felt so ashamed of being a unicorn in my entire life. We found a secluded alleyway to sleep in and settled down. We fell asleep hugging each other, embarrassingly.
We woke up surprisingly in a bed. We sat up and looked around. We were in somepony’s house. The door to the room opened, and an orange Earth Pony appeared smiling at her new guests.
“Good mornin’ lil colts. Have a nice sleep?” asked the pony.
“Who are you?” I asked, “Where are we?”
“My name is Apple Pie. It’s a pleasure.” She gave a polite bow. “We are here in the apple orchards,” she answered again, “I saw you two sleeping on the streets and couldn’t bear to see two youngins like that! So, I took you two on my cart and carried you here.”
“Thank you,” said my brother, bowing his head. I did so as well.
“Now where are you two’s parents? Aren’t you a little too young to be traveling on yer own?” she scolded.
“Umm… Our parents are gone. They disappeared somewhere,” I answered back; “We came here to look for help.”
She looked at us with sympathy rather than pity. “Then you are on yer own?” she asked.
My brother and I nodded.
She nodded to herself and exclaimed, “Why don’t you stay with me for a while!? Is that okay?”
We looked at each other and nodded.
“As long as it’s not a burden on you,” I said.
She smiled and said, “Welcome to the Apple family! Well there is only me and you two, but still a family nonetheless!” She seemed happy. She must have been lonely all this time. Something must have happened to her long ago.