Prologue
In the Everfree Forest, a young pegasus sits under a tree. This pegasus has brown skin and wings with a long black mane and tail. He has thick black glasses on his face as he has bad eyesight. His cutie mark is a red fountain pen that has a line of ink running out of it. He is crying to the point that it makes an echo throughout the forest. His name is Pen Mark and he has a body that is not his own. The only people who understand him are his various amount of friends that are in Ponyville. His own parents do not acknowledge him and believe he is going crazy with his claims. It got to the point that he changed his name to try and escape the ties of his family. It did not work as his mother unfortunately beat him with her own hooves until his face was swollen and he could not eat for about two days without his jaw hurting just for trying to stand up for himself against his mother.
Suddenly, a strange light blinds the confused mare. He looks around, trying his best to see. He then starts to wonder if he is even alive anymore.
"Pen Mark! Please stand up!" A voice calls out to his. Pen Mark wipes his face and stands up, following the command.
"Walk forward." The voice says. Pen listens to the command and the bright light disappears. Before him stands a alicorn with a crown with purple skin and wings. Her mane and tail is navy with a pink highlight that is a considerable length. The confused mare backs up in fear into the tree as the alicorn walks closer to him.
"W-Who are you?" He asks with fear in his voice. The alicorn bows her head and gives him a kind smile.
"Pen Mark. I am Twilight Sparkle and I have come to give you an exchange of some sorts." She says. Pen raises his eyebrow and looks at her while one last tear goes down his cheek.
"What kind of exchange?" He asks while trying to hide his feminine voice. Twilight lets out a chuckle at his attempt and hugs him with her somewhat large purple wing.
"I want to give you the body you desire in exchange of spreading your stories across Equestria." Twilight requests. Pen Mark looks down as he blushes a bit, feeling embarrassed. Pen Mark is a writer and he has always wanted to publish his own book, but for now he has been published in the Ponyville News. He has starred in a couple of issues of the Ponyville Press and was even offered a job, but his parents refused to send him off along with tearing apart the issue of the newspaper he had.
"My stories have already been in the newspaper." He mutters under his breathe. "So, they are already in Equestria. Just not here."
"Not as actual books though. I understand that you have a typewriter that you saved all of your bits for. You even carved your chosen name on the back of it. That takes bravery, considering your situation at home. The benefit of this is that you can have your work printed for all of Equestria to read and they will be presented in another format." Twilight then says as she uses her magic to make his blue typewriter appear before him.
"I see. I have one question though: will I be living in Ponyville in order to achieve this goal?" He asks in a quiet voice. Twilight nods and instantly, his wings began flapping so fast that he lifted himself off of the ground. Twilight begins to laugh at his excitement and motions her hoof to tell him to go back to the ground.
"Oh sorry! I just have friends in Ponyville and I haven't talked to them in a long time since I don't get a chance to see them a lot." Pen explains.
"It's alright. I understand. So, do you agree with this exchange? I can perform this spell, but I cannot guarantee its results." She asks in a serious tone. Pen Mark breathes in and out. He finally nods after a couple of minutes of calming himself down. Twilight activates her horn and starts to work her magic. She shoots a bolt of magic at Pen's body and his body shrouds itself in a bright light, similar to the one from earlier. Pen could feel his body starting to change. He looked around as his facial structure began to change. Once the light dimmed, Pen ran over to a nearby lake and looked at himself. His body was changed as he now has a gray body and his mane and tail are cut shorter.
"Shall we head off, Pen Mark?" Twilight asked the surprised now stallion. He looked over at her and tears started to form in his eyes. He galloped over and hugged the princess so tightly.
"Thank you." He whispered as he went into the cottage and packed some quills, a bound parchment notebook he made some time ago and his typewriter. He came out of the cottage and he slowly walked forward to Twilight.
"You will be alright, young stallion. Don't worry. It is now time to leave the nest and become your own pony." Twilight says as she starts to exit the Everfree Forest.
"Wait!" Pen shouted out. Twilight turned back to him and she looks at the ever timid stallion who is somewhat shaking. "What if they come to look for me? What if they take me back home? I don't want to get in trouble...I just want to be me." Pen cries out as he is trying to hold back his tears.
"I know, but the sooner you leave the better it will be for you. Do you want to make them happy or do you want to make you happy?" Twilight responded kindly. Pen looked down at the ground and then back at Twilight. She then turned back around and continued to exit the forest. Pen looked at his cottage, where bad memories of his lie. He starts to think about his life so far and he wants to make a change, but was also so scared to make it happen. He wanted to do something and he had to make the change right now. So, he continued to follow Twilight as she led him to his new home and where he would start leading his entire life.