After an unexpected free fall into Everfree Forest and turned into a pony, Carson, now Wishing Star, must adapt to this new world, help the soon-to-be-Princess-of-Friendship, and earn his own Cutie Mark.
High School student Carson Andrews was in for a world of life and unexpected turns when he got himself transformed into a Earth Pony and free fallen to Everfree Forest after a burst of magic from Twilight Sparkle during her magic exam. Despite how much of a fan he is of MLP:FIM, he can't help but feel scared and on edge as to what kind of consequences his presence might bring on account of his knowledge of a fictional cartoon show.
Now under the name of “Wishing Star,” he must adapt to the world around of him , blend in with every pony else, and earn his own Cutie Mark. But what happens when he falls in love with the soon-to-be-Princess-of-Friendship and make changes to the world around him?
Sigh... Why does my school life always have to be difficult?
It’s the same question that nineteen year old Carson Andrews had to ask himself every single time he walked out the school doors. Every day was the same routine: get up, freshen up, collect his schoolbooks, walk out of his apartment, go to school, get through his classes, walk out of school, and go home, go to bed, repeat for the next day.
It was a particularly cold day in Wisconsin, snowflakes started to drift down from the light gray clouds, covering the ground in white and making the blacktop of the highway into black ice. As he looked with his midnight blue eyes at the vehicles that were passing by him against the traffic, he’s at least thankful that his car wasn’t functioning, not that he wasn’t a reckless driver, but cautious about getting into an accident and walking back to his apartment from his school was a better call.
On the one hand, he would have less trouble with crazy drivers that would speed down the highway, but on the other hand, this also means that he has to walk to his apartment in an eleven-mile walk. It’s a good thing that he called in for pizza as soon as he was five minutes away from his home.
Carson never made any friends throughout his personal life, or in his childhood days, the only people he had in his life were his father and his grandfather. He would have many conversations with his loved ones, talking with his grandfather about his father in his days as a soldier in World War Two, and watch documentaries about the one woman whom had absent in his life... his mother.
Not much was told to Carson about his mother, but all he knew was she is the woman his father cared and loved with during the Gulf War. His father, Walt Andrews, was terribly injured due to nearly getting killed by a Iraqi tank, but it’s thanks to the love of his life and nurse at the time, Kimberly Brian, she was able to get him to a full recovery and back in the field.
They’ve been happily married for eleven years and had talked about having a child of their own, and had one they did. It took them a while, but they finally got a child of their own until Kimberly’s death from childbirth. Carson even asked his father that if he would ever find other girl like her, to which his answer is always never, she was the only woman for him as he was the only man for her.
Carson chuckles at the thought of being in love. I wonder what it was like for him when he met mom for the first time?, he thought to himself, only to just earn himself a depressed sigh, Why can’t I just have the one moment when I find true love like he did? He looked at the ground in shame of himself, as confident as he is when doing his homework, he’s been entirely shy to other people, except for his peers. He would turn in his work and move on to the next assignment, no questions asked, no nonsense.
As the young man reaches the Foxhaven Apartments, he took his key out of his backpack, unlocked the door, and went inside. He took his black beanie hat off of his head, revealing his curly blonde hair, then taking off his red jacket and his black shoes, placing them by the door. The apartment wasn’t anything too fancy, but not too typical either, a large living room, small kitchen and bathroom, bedroom... yep... not too typical at all.
Well, at least I can restart my binge watch on My Little Pony, he thinks to himself positively, he grabs out the first season DVD case off from the shelf. Looking at the shelf, seeing MLP seasons two through nine, nothing seemed to be out of place... except for one object that is placed on top of season two and three’s cases.
The object seems to be like a necklace, it was Nordic gold in color, the main center piece of the necklace was gold star with a turquoise gem in the middle. Funny... he thought, I don’t recall ever owning a necklace like this. He shakes his head and places the necklace on the couch, thinking he’ll return the necklace to whoever owns it. He placed the disc in the DVD player and turned on the TV.
As he begins his nostalgia trip, he can’t help but keep thinking about his little thoughts about love. Seeing his favorite character, Twilight Sparkle, on screen made him ask why can’t he have someone like her? What’s truly stopping him from asking a girl out to go on a date? Is it probably because of the fact he watches shows like this? He sighed in sadness and shook his head.
How can he find a reason to not like the show? The characters were enjoyable, the writing was well-thought out, and the creators of the show had huge fan services. He hasn’t been to any of the conventions that has been held in big cities like Chicago, Los Angles, or Orange County, but he always wanted to do something among the line of other MLP related activities.
He then took his gaze off the screen and looked at the window, stars appeared in the black night sky, shining brightly as they could. One of them was bigger than most of them. Is that a shooting star? he thought to himself as he looked at the star, then he shook his head again with a smile, Oh, that’s silly, such things like that only happen in fairytales. It’s not going to make me wish for something ridiculous like looking for adventure, or for love. Sorry little star, but I’m not gonna fall for it!
He crossed his arm as he refocused his gaze at the screen... only to look at the star again a few minutes later, caught in its glowing trance. He sighs and says, “Okay star, you win.” He got up from the couch, went to the back porch, looked up at the star, and began to speak out his wish. “If you really are a wishing star, then I wish that I would find happiness and have the courage to be a hero of my own story.”
At first nothing happens, making him sigh and drop his head in sadness, knowingly well how foolish it is for believing such a fairytale. Then, a bright glow emanated from behind him. Looking back at the glow, it was the necklace that was enveloped in a turquoise orb, shining brighter and brighter towards him. He shields his brown eyes from the glow, but he was too occupied as he questioned himself as to why he wasn’t running away from this light.
Before he could do anything, the orb suddenly fired a beam towards Carson, causing him to dodge out of the way, just in the nick of time. The beam then bounced back towards him in a different direction as it hit a window across the street, causing the young man to dodge it again. He looked at the necklace only to see that it was back in its place. He walked over to the couch and picked up the necklace to see if it would do anything, which it didn’t giving Carson some relief, but that relief was gone when he looked at the tv.
The beam had missed him, but it hit the tv just as a young filly Rainbow Dash performed the Sonic Rainboom. At first nothing had happened, but then the scene when Twilight had her magic accident happened and suddenly the edges of the screen became aglow with a purple glow. The screen was stuck on the scene when Twilight had started her magic surge, and the Strange thing was that Carson could feel the wind of such an event.
That’s when he realized that he was being pulled towards the screen in a similar fashion as that kid from the first Jumanji movie. He tried to scream for help, but it was too late. He then felt as if his body was changing, the pain causing him to blackout.
Carson groans as he tries to open his eyes, only to receive a blurred vision. After a few mintues of seeing blurry dots, they shrunk and his vision became clearer. Looking around at his surroundings, he notices that he seems to be in some kind of forest, with the tall trees and bushes, but what he notices is the style the scenery around him is in, it’s more of the G4’s My Little Pony art style.
“Am I in-” He began, but stops himself as he was shocked by his voice, sounding like as if he was a young kid. He gasps as he grabbed his throat, but almost sucker punching himself with something boney like, making him cough in shock. Looking at his hand, he realized that he was no longer human, instead of a hand is a green teal hoof. Looking at the rest of himself, his entire hide and pelt is in the same green teal color, looking behind him he had a short brown tail. Looking from at his sides and flanks, he can confirm that he isn’t a Pegasus, but he lacks any form of cutie mark, which is to be expect from any young foal looking for his/her talent. Tapping on the top of his head, there was nothing but mane, meaning he’s just a regular Earth Pony.
If he only had a mirror to look at himself, but that thought was cut off by something rustling in the bushes behind him. Quickly turning around to the bushes moving, he had several guesses as to what could be waiting for him. A Timberwolf pack? he thought to himself, but they’re much bigger, unless this is a pack young Timberwolves, though I doubt that might be it. A cockatrice perhaps? They usually come rushing without any form of stealth.
“H-Hello?” He calls out nervously, cautiously walking towards the bushes in front of him, “Is anyone there?” He parted the bushes to the sides to only see that no one was there. This was starting to creep him out, and he could see now why ponies considered Everfree Forest unnatural. He suddenly heard more rustling from behind him, making him gasp in fright. “W-Who’s there?” He asks to no one in particular, his ears flickering to try and pick up any sound of footsteps or voices, but the only sound he could hear is the rustling of the bushes, which was shaking violently than the one in front of him.
He began to panic and ran through the bush in front of him, trying to get away from whatever is stalking him, his little legs were trying their best to pick up speed, although he’s not being able to fully comprehend with his new legs yet as he kept tripping himself. Another thought came into mind, were the Parasprites following him? Would make sense given how small they are, but they aren’t carnivorous… well, as far as he knew.
As he was thinking about who or what is chasing him, the rustling became more violent and louder. “L-Leave me alone!” He shouts as he took a sharp right, then a left, then another right, and another right, then a left, then he stops, hearing voices, older males by the sounds of it. Perhaps he might be saved, so he kept running as he then shouts out, “Please help! Someone is after me! Help meEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” He unexpectedly fell off a cliff, tumbling down on the rocky surface, getting cuts from the semi-jagged rocks, tangled in vines, and got slammed to a boulder below, the sounds his cry echoes throughout the forest.
He tries to get up, but from the fall he took, he groaned in pain, falling onto his knees. He looked at himself as he seemed to be wrapped in some kind of poison ivy vines and adding to injury is that the open cuts were a target for the poison to enter his bloodstream. Feeling lightheaded, he lays down on his side, closing his eyes as he slipped out of consciousness, the last thing he heard were voices of concern and shouting.
As some of the Pegasi guards scouted from above, they soared back to the ground along with two other Pegasi, two Unicorns and five Earth Ponies. “Captain Gleaming Sword,” the male jet black Pegasus reports with a salute, “The area around Everfree that Princess Celestia wanted us to track has no other unnatural activity.
The captain, who is an older, silver coated Unicorn stallion, stroke his brass colored beard in thought. He then turns his head towards the young white Unicorn stallion and then asks, “Commander Shining Armor, are you sure you’ve picked up a surge of magic here?”
“I’m positive sir.” Shining confirms, “I may not be as talented as my little sister, but I know a surge of magic when I feel it. Look there at that cliffside sir.” He points at that ledge as he continues on, “During the battle between Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon, that ledge in particular has given off a strange surge of magic. Could be traced back from a thousand years ago.”
The older stallion stroke his beard again with a nod as he too looked at cliffside. “Indeed…” he says, “But we must not forget that Everfree has it’s own magic as well, a magic that isn’t natural to us.”
Shining nods as he understood. But their search was suddenly put on hold as the mint green Earth Pony mare shouts, “Sir! Look up there!” They all turned their heads towards the cliffside and saw that there are some rustling noises. “Something’s seems to be coming out from the Forest cliffside!”
This alerted the Earth Ponies and Pegasi as one of them shouts, “Arm your lances!” Some of them do so, readying in attack formation. The captain and commander looked closely at the ledge side, it was something completely unheard of, a creature from the Everfree about to leave it’s territory? For what reason? But their readiness didn’t prepare them for what came next as they heard a scream for help and then in terror as the voice belonged to a little green teal colt, emerging out from the forest and tumbling down the cliffside. All of the soldiers had gasped in shock as they saw the colt fall.
“Move!” Gleaming Sword shouts as he rushes ahead of the party and towards the colt, who was found unconscious by a boulder where he struck by the side of his barrel. The captain quickly propped up the colt to sit upright, and checked his vitals, which he sighed in relief, he’s alive. Looking at the vines wrapped around the colt’s body, he’s incredibly horrified.
Shining Armor hurries to his captain’s side. “How’s he looking captain?”
“He’s alive,” Gleaming tells him, “but’s he’s been tangled up with poison ivy vines.” Shining’s face match the scared look his captain had a few seconds ago. “We got to get him to Canterlot’s infirmary, or the poison’s going to kill him! Storm Rush, get this foal to Canterlot’s infirmary, now! Hurry! We will join you as soon as we can!”
“Yes sir!” The jet black Pegasus salutes and carefully picked up the colt. “Hang on kid.” He took off as fast as he could and hurries to Canterlot, trailing behind him are the three other Pegasi guards. Gleaming Sword, Shining Armor, and the rest of the guards follow pursuit.
“Is the kid going to be okay sir?” Shining Armor asked.
Gleaming reassures his young commander, “If this poison ivy’s toxin doesn’t get to his heart, then he should be fine.”
“What?!”
“That poison ivy isn’t any normal poison ivy kid, that’s the Toxikí lepída. Imagine regular poison ivy’s affects, but it’s worse by ten, with the threat of death on the line.”
Shining was now sweating, not just from the running, but knowing the grave situation the colt is in. “He is going to be okay though, right?” He asked his captain. Gleaming Sword didn’t answer him, he could only just pray to Celestia and the higher powers that he would get treated by the time Storm Rush get the colt to the infirmary.
The colt groans as he tried to open his eyes once again, but the bright lights from an unknown source made him cover his eyes. “Mrrrrph…” He groans, “Few… few more minutes…” The throbbing pain of the migraine however was enough to make him sit up and rub his eyes, until he stops and realizes what he’s using to rub his eyes. Looking down, he sees that he was still the green teal colt, and he was beginning to get scared and started screaming his head off.
His screams had alerted the guards that were standing stationed at infirmary door, one of which is the one who rushed him to the infirmary in the first place, Storm Rush. The sight of the guards made the young colt scream more, waking some of the patients in room, wondering why the foal was screaming. Storm Rush requests as he hurries to the colt’s side, “Get Princess Celestia and the Captain! Hurry!” He tries to calm Carson, “Hey hey, kid, calm down!”
Carson tried to struggle out of the jet black Pegasus’ grip on his front legs and tries kicking the guard’s chest… big mistake, as he kicked he chest plate, a sharp pain shot through the colt’s right rear leg making him scream louder. The Pegasus could feel the kick through his chest plate. This continues one for a minute and thirty seconds and Storm asked out loud, “Where’s the Captain when you need him?!” The sounds of heavy parting doors opening caught the attention of both boys.
“Storm Rush, what’s going on here?” Gleaming Sword asked his fellow guard. The distraction caused Carson to get out of Storm’s grip, tumbled off the bed, and made a mad dash for the doors. As Carson looked behind him, he could see that guard were about to follow him, they stopped dead in their tracks. He was stopped as he ran into something… or somepony, making him stumble backwards.
He quickly looks up and gasps in fright, standing in front of him is the Princess of the Sun and co-ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia. Gleaming Sword then spoke up with a salute, “Princess. We were about to escort the colt back to his bed a calm him down.”
Celestia looked down at Carson. The colt was beginning to feel like he was getting into trouble already, as if he felt like a little boy again. Celestia looks up and asked Storm Rush, “Has the treatment for his ailment been already taken affect?”
“Yes Princess, it’s already done a few hours ago.”
“Very good.” She nods as she back the colt again and knelt down, hearing a whimper from him, “It’s alright little one. Nopony here is going to harm you. You were in a very terrible condition. If Storm Rush, and Gleaming Sword haven’t found you in time, you would’ve met an awful fate.” The colt looked back at the armored stallions behind him and nodded.
“B-b-but, I don’t belong here!” Carson says to her, “I want to go home!”
Celestia could see the distress emanating from the foal, she then looks at the guards and requests, “Captain Gleaming, would you kindly escort the colt and myself to my room?” Gleaming nods and walks alongside her as Celestia used her magic to carry Carson and place him on her back, “We’ll talk privately about this situation little one, you’ll have plenty of time to tell me who you are.”
As they walked along through the Canterlot Castle’s halls, Carson then asks, “H-how did I even get here?”
“We found you after that shocking fall you took back in Everfree Forest,” Gleaming explains, “If we haven’t found you in time, you would’ve… died. Not only you’ve fallen off a cliff, you were also wrapped in Toxikí lepída vines, a kind of poison ivy that grows in the Everfree.”
Carson was in shock, this was completely new information of the Everfree Forest’s plant life. A type of poison ivy that could kill you? What kind of forest has a kind of killer plant in forest like that?! he thought to himself in shock, but then again, there are some plants that are deadly in the real world like the Deadly Nightshade that killed Macbeth’s soldiers, and the Water Hemlock that killed the Greek philosopher Socrates.
“However,” Gleaming brightens, “It’s thanks to Storm Rush’s speed that he got you to the infirmary so quick and provided the treatment you needed. I count that as very lucky, if I so myself.”
“Very lucky indeed Captain,” Celestia agrees, “I can’t even fathom what you had gone through in that forest. It can be very frightening for a lot of ponies, foals included.” As they continued to walk, Carson looked to his right to see the view of the mountains and the town of Canterlot below from the view of the castle. He never seen a view so breathtaking as that. As they reached the spiral staircase and to a door, Celestia dismisses Gleaming Sword, “Thank you Captain, you may return to your duties.”
“As you say, your highness.” The Captain salutes and trots back downstairs.
The Princess of the sun gave out a sigh as she opens the door and then closing it behind her with her magic. “Now, I believe that you mentioned that you’re weren’t meant to be here,” Celestia queried, she settles Carson on her bed as she lays next to him, “Would you please care to elaborate?”
The colt stared away from the alicorn princess, contemplating if he should tell her the truth, that their world is just a work of fiction in the mind of a human being and he himself is a human, but then again, this is Princess Celestia that he’s talking to. If anypony could help him get back to earth, it’s her. “W-what do you want to know?” He asks her.
Celestia giggled a little and said, “Well, as I mentioned, you proclaimed that you don’t belong in Equestria. I would like to know why you would say that.”
Carson took a gulp and begins to explain, “W-well, firstly, I’m not who or what you’d think I am.”
“That being?”
“I’m not a pony,” he clarifies, “I’m a human being from another world, a teenager to be specific. I made a wish from a shooting star to be a hero of my own story and to find happiness in life. Instead I got transported here by a light, following up by Twilight’s sudden surge of magic, and-”
“You were there?” Celestia asked him cutting off Carson’s explanation.
“N-not in the way you’d think,” The colt continues, “Y-you see… you and everyone here are a work of fiction, made and told in form of a show by humans. It became popular and got a following out of it.”
Celestia became silent for a moment, letting it sink in. She then asks him the obvious, “Then you know how this show happens? The events, characters, and story?”
Carson nods and adds, “Including some of the consequences of the future… even where Nightmare Moon rules Equestria.”
“What?!”
“B-but that never happens!” Carson was quick to reassure the Princess of the sun, “Twilight and friends were able to stop Nightmare Moon and have your sister reformed as Princess Luna!”
This calmed Celestia for a moment and then says, “But still, my own sister… what kind of event would lead to such possibility?”
Carson shook his head and answers, “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
The Princess gave out a sigh and then asks her next question, “Well, if you do know what happens here, I could assume you know how this show ends?”
He nods, “Twilight’s been made as the ruler of Equestria, and you and Luna have retired from that role.” This made Celestia raise her brow, her and her sister? Retiring as rulers of Equestria? “I know!” Carson exclaims, “I don’t know what the show producers and writers were thinking of doing that either, but it happened!”
Celestia just shook her head, “I would never abandon my position, even if Twilight is made as ruler, she still has much to go through before my and Luna’s time are done. I never heard of such absurdity.” The thought of her retiring, maybe when she’s too old for sure, but she’s practically an immortal! She looked down at the colt and then asks, “Then I suppose you would want to return to your world before you, in your view, would cause a denture in this timeline?”
“Would you be able to?” Carson asked hopefully, “You’re one of the most powerful magic users even known to ponykind.”
Celestia sighs sadly and explains, “Even if I could my dear, it would take up a lot of magical energy for me to cast such a spell, and even then, finding your home world will be much difficult, given the fact that my faithful student had used so much magical energy, it became somewhat unstable.” Carson’s ears went flat as Celestia tells him her answer, “unfortunately, it would be impossible for me to replicate what Twilight has done. I’m sorry little one.”
Carson’s hung head down, his ears went lower. “N-no…” he whispered, he was scared to death to imagine how his father would react if he went missing, he wouldn’t stop until he would find him, but what if he gave up? What if something were to happen to his father? A thousand scenarios began to play in his mind and each and every one of them scares him.
Celestia looks at her sun, realizing that she needs to lower it for the sunset, it was getting late. She then tells him, “For now, I’m afraid you’re stuck here. However, I don’t think that this is a bad thing. I believe that there are a set of circumstances and a strange power that has brought you here to our world. I know that your first day here may be a rough start, but I believe that there is some good that’s going to happen for you tomorrow. For now though, I suggest that you should get some rest, the treatment that you went through wasn’t a pleasant experience.”
Carson then says somberly, “I don’t think I could fall asleep now I won’t get home now… even if the bed is comfortable.”
Celestia gave him a little smile and reassures him, “I have a spell for that. I used this prank on Luna once and nopony could even try to wake her up.” It’s ironic for her, she used it for fun and games with her sister, now she has to use it to calm somepony’s fears… if only Luna would be here to watch over this colt’s dreams, she would’ve given him the most happiest of dreams. Her horn lit up and casts an aura around the colt. “There, that should take an affect with a few minutes.”
He nods as he lays down on his left side looking at the princess. “Thank you Princess.”
“You’re very much welcome… oh! I apologize, I never asked for your name.”
“Carson…” He says as he gave out a yawn, “Carson Andrews…”
She gave him another small smile, “That’s a very lovely name. I think, for now at least, we may need to change your name.”
“Like…” He yawns in mid-sentence, “what?”
She titters and says, “We can work that out tomorrow, for now, just get some rest. Just let the stars guide you peaceful dreams.” As she says those words, Carson’s eyes grew heavy, the spell’s affects were starting to take hold on the colt. Once the colt was fully asleep, there was a knock on the door. She looked at Carson, tucked him under the blanket and announces in a mid-hushed tone, “Come in.”
The doors opened to reveal commander Shining Armor, his parents Night Light and Twilight Velvet, and his little sister Twilight Sparkle. “Forgive me for the intrusion Princess,” Shining apologized, “My sister wanted to show you something.”
Celestia smiles and then was about to ask her what she had find, but she was cut off by her faithful student as the filly asks her teacher, “Who’s that?”
Celestia looked the colt asleep from the spell, then back at her student, oh the joys of the curious youths these days. “He’s just a colt Twilight. He’s been having rough day today. Your brother and the guards found him at the outskirts of the Everfree Forest.”
“Oh goodness.” Twilight Velvet gasps, a hoof to her mouth.
Celestia nods, then she looked at Shining Armor and motions her head to come with her. Shining does so, having the two of them privately discuss about the colt. “A colt, in the Everfree Forest?” Night Light asked his wife, she could only shrug at his question understandably shocked as he was. This made Night Light crossed, “What kind pony would leave their own foal in a forest like that? Everypony knows that a forest like the Everfree is dangerous, especially to foals.”
Twilight wasn’t paying attention to her parents’ conversation as she was more focused on the colt. She got on the bed and could see that he had restful look on his face, she could tell from some of the healed cut on his cheek that he looked like he had a rough experience from whatever that waited him in that accursed forest.
As she continues to examine him, the more she got close, his ear began to flicker. From what it seems despite being asleep, he seems to be responsive, albeit unconsciously. Wouldn’t this be the moment that the princess would kiss the sleeping prince? she asked herself in thought, … or is it the other way around?
Suddenly, Princess Celestia and Shining Armor returned in room, to which the Princess of the sun suggests that Twilight could show her what findings she’s discovered or new spell she’s been using outside of her chambers and leave the colt be for now. They all agreed and they head out of the room, the lilac filly took a moment to whisper to the colt, “I hope you feel better. Maybe we can be friends one day.” She gave him a quick kiss on his cheek where the cut was and she left the chamber.
If she had stuck around for a little bit longer, she would’ve saw the colt’s lips curve into a smile. As fate decrees it, his wish had came true, he just didn’t know it yet.
It has been fourteen years since Twilight's chance encounter with the green teal colt and she was well on her way to the Gala along with her friends. She’s been meaning to talk with her mentor about her mission to learn about friendship so far. She isn’t the only one that had dreams of going to the Grand Galloping Gala, Rarity wanted to talk, get to know, and swoon Celestia’s nephew Prince Blueblood, Rainbow Dash would get her chance at meeting the Wonderbolts, Pinkie Pie would there to, well, be Pinkie and give Canterlot the party of a lifetime, anything the girls would do to accomplish their dreams.
As the Gala had gone on, Twilight had been telling Princess Celestia about her lessons and studies of friendship, only to be interrupted by some nobles who’d wanted to meet the Princess in person. As she tried to wait patiently for her mentor, she couldn’t help but getting the feeling of being watched, so she looked around and there was one pony that she felt peculiar with.
Heading outside to the gardens was a green teal stallion with a brown mane, midnight blue eyes, slim build, and no cutie mark, nor a suit worn… how did he get in the Gala with no suit? Was he a resident in Canterlot Castle and Celestia didn’t mentioned it? So she decided to follow him. Once she did, she witnesses him walking towards Fluttershy, who of which was trying to get the animals’ attention.
“Excuse me.” The stallion calls out, which made the light yellow Pegasus jump in fright and looked at him, he then gave her a look of sincerity, “I’m sorry for frightening you, but are you trying to get the animals close to you?”
She shy Pegasus nods and tells him, “I-I know that some of these creatures here are really shy, but I didn’t think the animals here would be that shy.” They looked at the frightened critters and bird that were peaking in the bushes and peering down from the trees.
The stallion then gave her a chuckle, “They’re not fond of seeing new ponies, at least not with those who are nice to them.” He then went to a bench and picked a bag of bird seeds. “With enough care and love for them,” he tosses a good hoof full of the seeds in the air, scattering them, making the bird come flocking to the ground, “They’ll come to you and they’ll know to trust you.” He took another hoof full of birdseed and knelt down, several birds came to him and pecked some of the seeds.
“The animals trust those who feed them. It’s just like the ones at home!” Fluttershy says in her sweet tone, “Why didn’t I think of that before hoof?”
He looks at her and then asks, “Wanna give it a try?” She nods and the stallion gave her a good hoof full of seeds and instructed her, “Give it a good toss, they’ll come to it.” She does so, albeit it wasn’t as big of a wave of birdseeds as the stallion did, but some more birds and some critters came towards the seeds.
Twilight couldn’t help it as if she’d seen the stallion before, but where she couldn’t put her hoof on it. He bids farewell to the shy Pegasus and decided to head towards the Wonderbolts. She also couldn’t help but as if he planned for something like this to happen, as if like he knew that Fluttershy would be there.
And so the lilac unicorn follows him once again, as he comes and interacts with two members of the Wonderbolts, Captain Spitfire and Soarin’. He greets them and they were a little hush-hush for reason is beyond Twilight as she was a good distance for nopony to notice her. She then notices the stallion pointing at Rainbow Dash, whispers something in the yellow Pegasus’ ear and began to walk away, then he, on purposely, shouts, “HEADS UP!” knocking the pie out of Soarin’ hoof.
Rainbow notices this and quickly zooms over and grabbed it, just in the nick of time. She sighs and says to the stallion, “You know, you seriously gotta watch where you’re going pal.”
“Sorry.” The green teal stallion chuckles.
“Hey, I know you,” Spitfire says in surprise, “You're that pony that saved us in Cloudsdale and won The Best Flyer Competition.”
Rainbow was already swelling with pride as she brags, “Hay yeah! The name’s Rainbow Dash.”
The green teal stallion seemed to be displeased with the light blue Pegasus’ boasting, but he shrugs it off for now. “Well, I have to say, for mare with speed and accurate flying,” the stallion says to her, “You seem to show a lot of promise. No doubt wanting to be a Wonderbolt yourself?”
The tomboy mare says sarcastically, “Uh, yeah! How could any Pegasus pony not be one? What? You think I don’t have a shot?”
“I’m not saying that you don’t,” the stallion says defensively, “I’m just giving you a warning: if you are going to be a Wonderbolt, then be mindful that some of the trials are going to be hectic. Take Storm Rush for example, he-”
“Yeah yeah, I know his history, I’m know about every single Wonderbolt in history!”
The stallion chuckles and says, “Well then, I guess that you do have a future Wonderbolt on your hooves Spitfire.”
Spitfire wholeheartedly agrees with a nod, “You got that right. Hey, how about you come and hang out with us? We could have a youngster like yourself.”
Rainbow was in shock, so too was Twilight, the stallion got the light blue mare to be with her heroes! “Uh, s-sure, why not?” She says nervously, and as soon as they turned around, she exclaims, “I'm... hanging... with the... Wonderbolts!” with a squeal of delight and excitement she follows them.
“Have fun!” The stallion calls out as he takes his leave.
The lilac mare got more curious by the second, now she follows him back inside, keeping a distance to give him the idea he wasn’t being tailed. He then decided to head towards the convention stands, more noticeably to Applejack, and an arguing Rarity and Prince Blueblood, having a throat clearing contest until Rarity gave up.
“I’m going to have to pay for this, aren’t I?” Rarity asked with a sigh.
“No need,” the young stallion said as he tossed a pouch of bits to Applejack, “One for me and one for the lovely lady please.”
Rarity was in shock and was about to thank the green teal pony, until Blueblood rudely interrupts her. "And who are you?" He asked him.
“Somepony’s who is a better gentlecolt, thank you for asking.” The stallion retorts with a smug look on his face. Twilight could already see that this isn’t going to end well. “Also, you’re really expecting a mare to buy things for you? How much of a fucking donut you have to be for being that selfish?”
Blueblood laughed, “Hah! As if I, a prince, would be paying for some hussy’s meal.” The mares jaw dropped, especially Twilight, she knew he was a prat, but to stoop that low about her friends? She wanted to go up to him and just preach to him about Applejack.
Luckily for her, she didn’t have to as a he then got slapped in the face by the young stallion. “You want to say that again and in front their faces?” He growls like a manticore at the prince, “In case you’d forgot, they are worth giving a damn than you, unless you can tell me what you had accomplished, you’re nothing.”
“How… how dare you!” The pratty prince shouts at him, “You would dare slap at the nephew of Princess Celestia?! I would have you-”
*SMACK!*
The mares gasped after seeing a much harder slap to Blueblood’s face, almost knocking him to the floor. “As far as all of the asshole pricks who call themselves a noble go,” the stallion says to him lowly, “You are the fucking worst. Now, you’re going to get up, apologize to them, and walk away. I better not see you at the Gala for the rest of the night, and if you ever talk to a lady like that again, I will fucking drag you like a two year old to an alleyway and leave you locked up in a dumpster. Are we clear?”
The prince just stood up as he grabbed his sore cheek, scoffs at him, and walked away.
The stallion sighed in disgust and looked at the fashionista and country pony who looked at him in shock, “I’m sorry, but if it’s one thing I hate is nobles.” He took another pouch of bits and placed it on the counter. “Here, as an apology.”
Applejack was confused, “An apology? For what sugarcube?”
“For seeing violence.” He answers and began to walk off with his slice of the apple pie. The mares were just awestruck by what they witnessed as they continued to stare dumbfounded at the stallion walking down the corridor.
“What are we staring?” Pinkie Pie asked the mares out of nowhere, scaring the bejeezus of her unsuspected friends. “What?”
“Pinkie darling, please make your presence known dear.” Rarity says to her while she clutched her chest after nearly getting a heart attack.
“I don’t know why, but I felt like I’ve seen him before.” Twilight said aloud to nopony in particular.
Applejack and Rarity caught on what their friend said. “Ya know ‘im Twi?” The country mare asked her.
“I… don’t know,” she says as she shook her head, “But he’s acting strange, and I’m going to find out who he is and why he’s acting like this.” And so, her investigation has her being lead to following the stallion down to a corridor and then taking left to a hallway. This was strange, he was taking the path to the princesses’s chambers. Why was he going there? Does he live here with the princesses? Why doesn’t he have a cutie mark? So many questions rang through her mind, but her questions were about to be answered as she heard a voice she knows all well.
“Ah, out and about through the castle, are we?” Luna asked the stallion. The lilac mare stops herself and listen in on the conversation from the corner.
“Princess Luna,” the stallion greets with a chuckle, “Good to see that you’ve been interacting with some of the, ahem, nobles in the Gala this evening. Have they been giving you praise like Celestia?”
A sigh could be heard from the Princess of the moon. “I could now see what kind of stress Celestia had mentioned when I’ve became reformed from being Nightmare Moon.”
“I guess being stuck in exile on a moon for thousand years will do that to a pony,” the stallion says to her with remorse in his voice, then pipes up, “But hey, better things are going to happen soon, that I can guarantee you.”
“Speaking of better,” Luna says curiously, “Tia and I have noticed your interactions with the Elements of Harmony. Have they helped you seek the happiness you desperately needing?”
That’s what his interactions wit her friends were about? Seeking happiness? Why didn’t Celestia tell her about this stallion? She could’ve helped him in his happiness or friendship situation, that could’ve dealt with! But from his saddened tone as what he says next would almost second guess his plight.
“To be honest with you Princess Luna,” he says to her, “I’ve seen this replaying in my mind so many times, I just feel like I still don’t belong here in Equestria, especially with that dream.”
“Still on your mind?” She asked him with concern.
He sighs, “I don’t know if it was real or not. I want to say it was real, but at the same time, I’m just going to end myself mucking up her life without end.” There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, until he spoke again, “A-anyways, I’m gonna back down to Canterlot’s alleyway and just… sulk. Oh, uh, if you see her, could you give this to her?”
After a few more seconds of silence, Twilight had then decided that she’s gotten a pretty good idea as to what he’s dealing with, so she peers around the corner and said, “Excuse me, could I- huh?” She noticed that the stallion’s gone, she looked around the hallway, but no sign of the stallion. “Where did he go?! There’s no way a Earth Pony could leave the castle that quick!”
“Ah, dearest Twilight,” Luna greeted warmly, “How are you?”
“P-princess Luna!” She exclaims as she gave her a bow, then raised herself back up to look at the cornflower blue alicorn mare, “Were you talking to a teal stallion? He just came by here. I don’t know if it’s my mind playing tricks on me, or if this is one of Rainbow Dash’s pranks.”
“I assure you that it was no prank,” Luna explains looking down the hall, “he was here indeed, but from his current predicament, he might not be up to seeing anypony else at the moment. However, he did want me to give you this.”
She gave Twilight what appears to be a drawing. In this drawing there was an obscure black silhouette of a foal next to the green teal colt, asleep in what seems like a bed and was healing from some injuries. The silhouetted filly seems to be watching over the colt, and he was unconsciously smiling.
Twilight gasped in shock at two revelations: one is that his art style is quite impressive, but secondly is that this is the same colt she saw from fourteen years ago, though some other important details like colors have not been present. She looked up at the Princess of the moon and began to throw a heap of questions, “Where is he now?! Why is in the alleyways?! Does his parents know?! Who is he?!”
“Now now Twilight,” Luna calms the eager and excited lilac mare, “The colt has been through a lot, and as I mentioned, he probably might not want to meet anypony else at this time.” She sighs as she looked back at the hallway again, “Poor soul. Bless his heart though, despite his situation, he’s always finding a way to help get through my struggles ever since I’ve been reformed.”
Twilight then sighs, saddened by the fact that she won’t get the chance to see him again tonight after fourteen years. However, she then noticed that something else was off, looking around herself, she asked herself, “Wait… Where’s Spike?”
As Spike gorges himself what seems like the tenth donut, he looks at the stallion behind the counter and shouts in a demanding tone, “Hey! Pony Joe! Another Donut!”
The shop owner who was a unicorn with light brown fur, along with a short darker shade of brown hair on his mane and tail, green eyes, gray hoof-tips, and a pink frosted donut cutie mark, while wearing a white baker’s outfit. “Don’t you think you’ve had enough?” Joe questions while he thinking it was for the best for the baby dragon‘s health.
But Spike insists, “Another donut! Extra sprinkles!”
But the demand for another desert styled bagel wasn’t paid to mind as the door bell rang as the green teal stallion, wearing a brown cloak, walked in the shop. He then took a seat to the table next to Spike’s, of which this caught the little purple dragon’s attention.
“Ah, it’s you,” Pony Joe greets with a smile at the young stallion, “The same as usual?”
“No, not really,” the green teal earth pony said to him, “It’s been uneventful actually… you see, I-”
“I was talking about a cup of mocha, mack.”
“O-oh,” he says with a blush of embarrassment, he sighs sadly, “No thanks, not this time. Just some water. Chilled please.” The shop owner nods as he went to the back. This only earned the young stallion a depressed sigh, leaning himself back on the chair. He then looked at the little dragon, who was just waiting for his next donut that might not be coming and is probably on the verge of a sugar crash. “You too, huh?” He asked the dragon.
“The Gala?”
“Yeah.”
Spike sighs in the same depressing tone the young stallion was. “It was supposed to be the best night ever,” He said to him, “but everypony else was just doing their own thing. I though we could’ve, you know, just talk with each other, have fun… but-”
“It isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.” He finished before the little dragon could, but he does nod at his answer. The stallion just scoffs, “Heh, you’re lucky that it’s the only time for you. I’ve been every single one of those Galas since I was six. At first, I thought it would be nice to just interact with somepony there. They’re just like every single, stuck up, idiotic noble in this town.”
Spike was now curious and little concerned for the earth pony. “You don’t have any friends?” He asked him.
The green teal pony just looked at him with a deadpan expression, “Other than the Princesses? No.” Pony Joe then gave him a water bottle, which the young stallion gratefully nodded and took it. He opens it and began to down it with a couple of gulps. He exhales as he asks, “I mean, I just don’t get it. These nobles had already seen and spoke with Celestia about maybe five to six times and all they do is prattle on about their accomplishments instead of thanking her with everything she’s done. You don’t like the Gala, but you want to see Celestia. Take a number and pick a fucking lane.”
The shop owner looked at him in shock, while Spike was confused by the word the stallion used. “Hey, watch the language pal!” Pony Joe calls out.
“Sorry Joe.” The stallion said with regret, he took a moment to sigh and lean back.
Spike got curious about this stallion, so he went to the pony is at table he sat at and decided to chat with him. “I hope I’m not prying or anything, but it sounds like you’ve got a grudge with nobles.” He says to the young stallion, “I mean, nopony doesn’t really like to hang around with them, but why you?”
The stallion just looked at the little dragon across the table, he shook his head and asked, “Aren’t you too young to even know this kind of stuff, kid?”
“I’m old enough to assist anypony in need, including finding a solution to a friendship problem.” Spike explains to him, giving him a toothy smile.
The stallion just looked at him with a brow raised. “That still doesn’t answer my question…”
Spike’s smile then turned into a concerned frown with his arms crossed. “It still can’t hurt to talk about it, can it? I mean, my friends can solve any problem!”
The stallion sighs, “I don’t think it’s problem they can help me with kid.”
“Try me.” Spike says with a kind smile.
The stallion just looked at the little drake, there was something about him that really wanted to help him with whatever situation he wanted to tell. “You’re very persistent, aren’t you?” He asked him making himself chuckle, he then turn to Pony Joe and then shouts, “Hey, can we get a dozen donuts here?”
“Man, tonight was awesome!” Rainbow Dash cheers as pumped her left foreleg in the air.
“I’ll say!” Pinkie joins, “That was best party I’ve ever been to!”
While the two Pegasi and the party pony were talking about some the best moments, Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight were discussing about the strange stallion that was in the Gala not too long ago. “Yer sure ya’ll seen ‘im before?” AJ asked the lilac unicorn.
“I know I’ve seen him.” She confirms with a nod, “It’s been fourteen years, we never actually got acquainted when we were foals, but I know that this is him. What’s really puzzling to me is the silhouetted filly.” She pulls out the picture for what felt like the twenty-eighth time and showed them the silhouette, “Just from the outline, she looks familiar, but I can’t tell who this is. At first thought that would be my mom, but that wouldn’t be possible as she’s much older than he is. Then I thought it could be Moondancer, but that shouldn’t be possible either, she wasn’t present at all!”
The two mares looked at the silhouette, just as perplexed as Twilight is. “Well, I don’t know who this filly is, she does seem to have a very lovely coiffure, and the colt looks very handsome.” Rarity complimented, she then placed her hoof to her chin, “Hmm… but now the more that I think about it, I do believe that you may be right about that stallion being the colt… he seems very kind, but he has that… aggressive side to him.”
“He does seem like it,” The country pony agreed, her curiosity matching Rarity’s and Twilight’s “More likely, he seems to hate nobles. Ah wonder why, and why would he be scurrying around in the alleyways? Ya think he might be homeless?”
Twilight shrugs, “I don’t know, but from what I’ve heard from his conversation with Princess Luna, he seems to know the ins and outs of the castle, he could basically just go there when and wherever he pleases.”
Their conversation about the young stallion was interrupted however when Rainbow Dash shouted, “Hey, there’s Spike!” The girls gather as they watch the little drake talking the same stallion they all met back at the Gala, the both of them were laughing. “Who’s that he’s talking to?” Dash asked the mares.
Twilight’s eyes lit up, seeing this as an opportunity to finally get her answers, so she hurries inside only to see and hear Spike mimicking her voice, “Ah no no, Spike, they go in the A-E section and- no, if a book is talking about romance, they don’t go in with the magic- Spike!” The stallion was laughing his head off, smacking his hoof on the table. He took a moment to open his eyes and he stopped laughing when he saw Twilight.
“What?” The baby dragon asked. It took him a few seconds to realize for him to ask, “She’s right behind me, isn’t she?” He slowly turned around and immediately panicked, “Gah! T-Twi, hey, uh… w-we weren’t talking about you or anything, heheh…”
She didn’t paid any mind to the poor impersonation Spike did and walked towards the stallion. “Um…” she was beginning to stutter, it’s been fourteen years ever since she saw the stallion as a colt, and she doesn’t have any idea as what to even say to him!
Thankfully, he spoke first with a smile, “So you’re the Twilight Sparkle. I’m glad we got a chance to meet face to face.”
“Oh! U-uh, yes,” she giggles awkwardly as she shook his hoof, “It’s nice to meet you too.” Why am I getting nervous around him? she asked herself in thought, And why does my cheeks feel so warm? “I-I wanted to say thank you for making the girls’ night at the Gala.”
The young stallion looks at her confused and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Applejack then reminds him, “Yer were there when ya gave me that bag of bits, and ooh howdy, ya’ll must’ve gotten a fortune in getting those bits!”
“O-oh! Well I-”
Rarity spoke up next, cutting off the green teal earth pony, “And you paid for the apple pie earlier tonight and gave Prince Blueblood a talk down, though I would’ve done it with the use of violence.”
“S-sure…”
Rainbow then exclaims in excitement, “And not only did you got me to meet the Wonderbolts, but they’re thinking about having me in the academy!”
“I-I’m grateful to hear that.” He stops and looked at the shy Pegasus for a few seconds, who only just nods at him as a sign of thanks from earlier tonight. “L-look, I’m glad that I made your night, but if you’re planning to ask me out, then you’re asking the wrong pony.”
“WHAT?!” The mares shouted in a shocked unison.
“Who would want to go out with you when you just met a few hours ago?!” Rainbow asked, the question seemed to hurt the young stallion, who just looked away in shame. The light blue Pegasus immediately realized what she said and regretted by her sentence, “Oh shoot, I-I didn’t mean it like that, I-”
“It’s okay,” he says with a sigh and shook his head.
Rarity was next to speak up, “You’ll have to forgive Rainbow, dear, her mouth can get ahead of her mind sometimes.”
“Hey!”
Rarity ignored her daredevilish friend and continued, “But I think you’re not giving yourself enough credit. In fact, if you’d haven’t stood up to Blueblood, I wouldn’t have fully realized how much of a prat, if you’d excuse my language, he really is.”
The stallion nods, a small smile crept on his lips. “Hey! I saw a smile!” Pinkie says in singsong tone.
He looked at the mares, giving him smiles of their own. “Oh, um… would you girls like to have a seat?” He asked them.
Rarity titters, “My my, such a gentlecolt.”
As the mares took a seat of their own, he looked at them individually, as if he’s seen them seated like this before. “I guess by assuming that you know who we are,” Twilight says as she sat across from the teal green Earth Pony, “Maybe you could tell us about yourself?”
“Oh… well,” the stallion started, scratching the back of his head, “I don’t know if you want to even hear about it… my life isn’t happy or exciting.”
“Oh, sure it is!” Pinkie Pie exclaims excitedly, standing up on her chair, “I bet you must’ve gone through a lot of adventures, and made a lot of friends too.” His body language said otherwise as his ears flattened and his head hung in sadness. She notices this and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I… didn’t had any friends growing up.” He explains to them.
Their smiles immediately turned to either frowns or were gasps of shock. Pinkie rushed to the green teal Earth Pony and got into his personal space as she grabbed him by the shoulders. “No friends?!” She asked him.
“No friends.”
“No adventures?!”
“Haven’t been to one.”
“No parties?!”
“Never been invited to one.”
“WHAT?!” The party pony screeched as the teal pony moved away from her, causing Pinkie to fall forward and on her stomach. She immediately pronked back up and asked the obvious question, in his mind at least, “Why didn’t anypony bother inviting you?”
“Have you seen the nobles here Pinkie?” Rainbow asked rhetorically.
Twilight nodded in agreement with the light blue Pegasus and further explained, “Some of the nobles are high ranked ponies and they’ve never even bothered with, in their view, childish things.” She then turns to the green teal pony, “I’m a little confused as to why would you even bother stay here in Canterlot? If you don’t like the nobles here, why are you even staying here?”
He sighs and then asks, “Can you promise me to not think of me as the bad guy if I tell you?”
“Depends.” Applejack says with a brow raised.
He nods and then began, “Some of the nobles would treat me like as if they’re nothing to them. Things like, ‘Oh, a pony who wishes to find a Cutie Mark in such as a place as Canterlot? Absurd!’ or, ‘I don’t think you would qualify for getting such a Cutie Mark like mine, peasant! You’re not fit for my assistance, begone!’ So, for as long as I could remember, I’ve been living in the alleyways. For years, I kept hoping somepony would just for once look and me and think, ‘You know, this guy might need help,’ but apparently they don’t have time for a grown stallion for getting a Cutie Mark.” The mares and little dragon were in silent state of shock, letting the stallion continue, “I felt like I was at the point of giving up… I got bitter with hate. I just felt I just wanted to lash out anypony that would try to hurt me.”
Applejack then broke the silence as she says, “Ah guess that’s why ya’ll apologized to me Rares for seeing ya laying a smack down on Prince Blueblood.”
He nods as he finishes as he said, “I just didn’t want to live in this lifestyle anymore… I’m just tired of it.”
“Well, being violent towards others is not going to solve this problem dear,” Rarity says with sincerity in her voice, “as I said, how you stood up to the Prince was admirable, but I would caution to not use violence in the future.”
Just then, as if a lightbulb went on in the party pony’s mind, she then exclaims, “Hey! Why don’t you come to Ponyville with us? Tonight!”
The stallion looked shocked at her. “T-T-Tonight?” He stutteringly asked.
“Yeah!” She cheers, pronking about and around the stallion, “You could definitely fit in! We’ve gone through all kinds of adventures! You could get lucky and make news friends!”
“I… I don’t know Pinkie Pie,” he says to her, getting uncomfortable by her energy, “I’m not much of an adventurous kind of pony.”
“Aw, come on,” Pinkie encourages with a nudge of her elbow to his side, “We’ll throw a party for you~.”
…
“I think I’ll pass.”
Pinkie gasps dramatically and before she goes on a rant about the importance of parties, Twilight quickly cuts her off, “Pinkie, let me handle this.” She turns to him and then explains to him, “I get it, you just want to stay in Canterlot and just do your own thing, but believe me that spending your whole life by yourself, it’s not fun.”
He shrugs and tells her, “Well, not being the fun type isn’t in my repertoire either.”
“I wasn’t either when I first came to Ponyville. I only cared more about studying than making friends," she said, looking at him in his midnight blue eyes. "When Princess Celestia sent me here to Ponyville to make some, I was dreading it. That changed when Nightmare Moon returned, and I quickly realised that the five ponies I had met on my first day here were indeed... my friends. Once I realised that, we were able to recover the Elements of Harmony and use their power to defeat Nightmare Moon — which in turn returned Princess Luna to us. And ever since then, I've been so grateful to have them by my side.”
He took a deep breath through his nostrils, then smiled at her. “You know? I think the both of us are a lot more in common than I thought.” This earned a smile from the lilac mare. “Both of us isolating ourselves because we chose to, and we struggle to make friends at first... but that’s where those similarities met it’s crossroads. You made making friends look so easy.”
She giggles at his compliment, “Well, sometimes making friends isn’t easy. Sometimes new friends come to you, other times, you to come around to new and potential friends.”
He looks at the mare, and at Pinkie Pie, who’s practically giving him the begging act. He sighs and gave in, “Okay… I’ll give Ponyville a go.”
“I think that’s a good idea Wishing Star.” They all turned to the entrance of the bakery, surprised to see Celestia, who spoke before them, and Luna not at the castle and approached them.
“I agree,” Luna commented as she sat next to the stallion, who the mares’ and Spike’s new form of knowledge that said stallion’s name is Wishing Star, “It’s nice to step out of the shadows and into my sister’s beloved sunlight tomorrow. We couldn’t help and overheard your conversation, so we’ve taken the liberty of getting you a train ticket Wish.”
He was quite surprised and said, “P-Princesses, you didn’t have to-”
“We figured it would be best if you could make some friends and learn the values of friendship with your new studying partner.” Celestia explains with a smile, leaving both the lilac mare and teal stallion were in shock.
“I-I have a study buddy now?!” Twilight’s excitement level went through the roof. Celestia nods at her student as the lilac pony turns to look at the teal stallion, after searching for him all night, after trying to get answers, they’re finally friends for the first time in fourteen years! She squeals in delight for a moment and then she says to her mentor and her sister, “Oh thank you Princesses! We won’t let you down for our study of friendship!”
Celestia giggles as she looks at the bedazzled Wishing Star, whom of which spoke up, “P-princess, this seems so… sudden. Are you sure that this is a good idea? I don’t want to be in the way of somepony else that’s working on such a task.”
“You’re not in the way of anything Wish,” Twilight says as she walked around the table to the teal stallion, “Besides, this could be a fun and interesting experience for the both of us!”
“She’s right on the fun part!” Pinkie commented with a giggle.
The stallion looked at the Princesses at first as he stutters, “W-well, um… I-I…” he then looks at the lilac mare, her soft expressed smile made some of the nervousness melt away within twenty seconds. “You know what? Sure, I’ll give Ponyville a go.”
Spike and the mares, excluding the Princesses, cheers, then Pinkie exclaims, “Now this is the best way to end the best night ever!” Everypony was laughing at the party pony, except for Wishing Star who just gave her a small smile.
Maybe Celestia is right, Wishing thought to himself, I’ve remained dormant in Canterlot for so long, and had to keep up with charade of being this tough guy pony everyone here sees me as… but can they accept me for who I am when I get to Ponyville?
Wish couldn’t believe the luck he had last night, he meet the Mane Six and Spike, they offered him to come to Ponyville, and he became Twilight’s study buddy in the process. Things are really looking up for him, his smile never left his lips as he strolls down the hills as he prepares himself to head out to the train station.
However, one of the guards came up to him and said urgently, “Sir Star? The Princess requests your presence at the throne room, it’s an emergency.”
He looked at him confused and then asked, “If this has to do with the Gala last night, you can tell the nobles that I have no interest of apologizing.”
“It’s not that sir,” he reports to him, “It’s much dire than that! Discord is back!” This stopped Wishing Star dead in his track, hearing the name of the Lord of Chaos’ name made the teal stallion hurry to the throne room.
As he got to the doors that lead to the throne room, he accidentally bumped into Twilight and the rest of the Mane Six. “Wish!” The book smart pony exclaims, “Did Celestia call for you too?”
He nods yes and tells her, “And you’re not gonna like what she’s gonna say.”
As they entered the throne room, Celestia was pacing until she notices the group entering the room. "Princess Celestia, what's happening!?" Twilight asked. "I tried to use my fail-safe spell to stop everything that's been going on, but it failed!"
“You have a fail-safe spell?” Wish asked her, completely forgetting that she had that spell in the first place.
His question was ignored as the Princess of the Sun spoke, "I have called all of you here for an important reason. It seems that an old foe of mine has been freed from his imprisonment, and I alone cannot stop him. It has been a thousand years since his defeat, but he has returned." She looked up at one of the murals, the others following her gaze. "Discord, a being of chaotic power, causing disharmony and havoc all over Equestria. I thought that the spell Luna and I cast on him using the Elements of Harmony would have kept him as a stone statue forever, but they are no longer in out power anymore. The spell has been broken, and he was able to escape." Celestia lead the group down the halls until they reached a tower connected to the corridor, a sealed door that seemed to hold what they expected were the Elements of Harmony. "With the elements returned to us, I've kept them here in this high-security safe, where nopony can access them except myself. Now, I ask you and your friends, Twilight, to wield the Elements of Harmony and defeat Discord before he thrusts this our world into chaos."
"But why us?" Twilight asked.
"Hey! Look at this!" Pinkie exclaimed as she pointed at a mural that looked like it was made recently. "We're famous super heroes!"
On the window, it showed the mares on the ground, Nightmare Moon flying above them as a rainbow aura surrounded her, which was supposed to be the rainbow lights that were shot out from the Elements of Harmony. The girls wore their elements, a colored beam of light matching their gems shining from their necklaces and crown. A dark cloud was seen seeping out from the Mare in the Moon as it was destroyed by the light.
You’re very lucky to be heroes on that day, Wish had thought, looking at the awestruck Twilight, staring at the mural, hopefully my wish will come true of being a hero.
"Twilight, you and the others showed the potential to being the Elements of Harmony." They turned back to Celestia after looking at the mural commemorating all of their efforts on the Summer Sun Celebration. "Because of the magic of friendship you had harnessed, you were able to save my sister and wield the elements. And I believe, with Wishing Star’s help, their power was strong enough to free Luna from the darkness in her heart. I knew you could help her, and I know now that you all will be able to stop Discord before he causes more trouble throughout the world.”
"Wait! Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain!" the party mare said. "Think about it! Endless supplies of chocolate rain coming from the heavens! It's my life-long dream to live in a candy covered world, and it's coming true!"
Wish just looked at her confused and asked, “I’m pretty sure somepony else made that into a reality and to make a copy of that would just be a copyright infringement Pinkie.”
“Aw nuts!” Pinkie curses.
Celestia looked at the safe containing the Elements of Harmony. She stuck her horn in an indent in the sun etched in the center of the door, casting a spell into it as her horn glowed. She pulled away as the door itself began glowing the same aura as her magic. With the door opened, the safe revealed a pedestal with a blue chest, Rarity's eyes sparkling at the glimmering box. The alicorn held the box with her levitation and held it out to them.
"Take the Elements of Harmony, and use their power. You are Equestria's only hope." She opened the box, but the elements weren't inside. Celestia gasped and dropped the chest. "B-But how...? That chamber is protect by a powerful spell only I can unlock!"
Suddenly, they heard laughter echo in the room, everyone looking around to find out where it was coming from. Wish just looks at the mural of Discord and said, “Take one guess.”
The mural’s color stained glass dances as the draconequus himself has been spotted, smirking at the group. ”My my Celestia,” Discord said through the glass, “For picking ponies as your friends, you seemed to always pick the best ones.”
"Discord." the alicorn growled.
"So you have missed me, Tia. I sure missed you." He said as chuckled.
"What have you done with the Elements of Harmony!?" Discord flew into another mural, hovering around the window where the six ponies stopped Nightmare Moon.
"I took them," he simply answered, then gave a mocking chuckle “Honestly my dear, have you really forgotten as to what I do, or what I’m capable of? Has the years finally caught up with you?”
“You'll never get away with this, Discord!” She furiously drew a hoof as she swore to him.
Then Wish snorts, “Honestly, has he though? I mean, this isn’t an act of foulness or evil, it’s just childish.”
“Childish?” Discord asked Wishing Star, he examined him as a pair glasses appeared as he squints. ”Ah, so you must be Tia’s new pet project. I’ve heard talks about you, and I must say, whatever plans she has for you it must be boooring.”
“And let me guess,” the young stallion teases, “‘Chaos could change your life forever!’ Please, pray tell, show me what I haven’t seen from you? Taking Unicorn horns and Pegasi wings? Been there. Having the clouds pour down chocolate rain? Done that. Honestly Discord, if this isn’t the display of a child being stuck inside of a whatever-thousand-year-old body, I don’t know what is.”
This seemed to have struck a cord on the draconequus. “You would dare mock me in my presence?” Discord asked.
“In front of six lovely mares and a Princess that wants to see your kiddy play plan blown up in your face and have you reverted to stone? Then yeah, I dare,” he say with a cocky grin, “Also, we gotta catch up with our silent opera sessions. Seriously, no matter how many times I come by your statue, it’ll like that’s the only thing you’d win at.”
“You will cease your tomfoolery, AT ONCE!” He demands as some of the stained glass windows shattered, leaving the only one where he is in.
“I’ll stop, if you tell us where you hid the elements.”
The draconequus growls, but then he calms his demeanor and says, “Very well, I'll tell you, but I'll only tell you my way.” He then explained his riddle before his spirit left the building. “To retrieve your missing Elements, just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where you began.”
Discord's mural flashed as it was now once again a permanent piece on the window, his laughter echoing as he disappeared. "What did he mean by that?" Rainbow asked.
The other mares had no idea, questioning about the riddle. Twilight’s pondering reflects on the word Discord spoke. “Twists and turns... twists and turns... twists and turns! That's it!” She then said as she eyed the nearby maze. “I bet Discord hid the Elements in the palace labyrinth! It’s where he expects us to find them so he scattered them somewhere in the maze so we can’t find them.”
Wish shook his head, he knew that this was a trap set by Discord, he wanted them to be led by their own downfalls and flaws. He interjects, “I don’t think that’s the answer Twilight.”
Everyone looks at Wish as if he was a wiseman. “What do you mean?” Twilight asked curiously.
“This is what Discord wants us to the think.” Wish explains to the Mane Six, “Think about the last part of his riddle, ‘Find the Elements back where you began.’ He’s referring to you Twilight.”
The girls were shocked. “M-Me?!” She asked him, “What does this have to do with me?”
“It makes sense,” he goes on, “Your journey starts in Ponyville, right? Well, what if he placed them in the one place where it hits closest to home?”
The lilac Unicorn’s eyes widened in realization. “They’re in the Golden Oaks Library!” She exclaims, earning a nod from the stallion, “But, how does he-”
“‘Twists and turns are my master plan.’ He knows who you and your friends are, and he planned this. This is what he was expecting for you to do, to get caught in his lies and try to break you down physically one by one, disconnecting from your elements and have you all brainwashed. A creature with a high IQ would piece it together.”
“That no good cretin!” Rarity shouts dramatically.
Rainbow then asks, very suspicious of the stallion, “How do you know that’s what he wants?”
“As I said, he’s simply a child in an adult’s body. Everything that he says and does isn’t really that chaotic, but childish.”
They looked at each other for a moment, then Applejack spoke up, “Well, Ah reckon’ we better get to Ponyville fast, before Discord realizes what we’re up to.”
They all agreed and the six mares hurry out of the throne room. Twilight stops in front of the door as she turns to look at the teal stallion, he seems to be hesitant to follow them. “Are you coming with us Wish?” She asked him.
Am I gonna go with them? he asked himself in thought, Should I go with them? He seems to have brought down a brick wall on himself. On the one hoof, going with them would be an adventure, and Twilight did promise that she would teach the values of friendship, but if he does go with them he’ll only just get in the girls’ way and this may cause further issues. My wish is to be a hero of my own story… but this the girls’ fight. The victory should be theirs. I can’t get involved… not even since I…
“You go ahead without me.” He says to her, “I… I need to stay here.”
Rainbow’s head peak around from the other side of the door from hearing this, “What? And miss out on the chance to kick his butt and turn him to stone?”
Twilight’s eyes remained focused on the stallion. “You’re not coming with us?” She asked him.
He sighed and tells her, “This is where we… part ways Twilight. Despite what you girls tell me about Ponyville back in the donut shop last night, it sounds like one heck of a paradise, but I think it would be wise that I don’t go. I’ve already interfered with your lives enough as it is.”
The girls were shocked by Wishing Star’s rebuttal. Rainbow Dash was beginning to get suspicious of his sudden shift of behavior, and she knew that something was off with this guy. “First you’d suddenly act all tough on Discord, and now you’re saying that you don’t want to go out and stay behind? What’s going on with you?”
Wish hung his head and shook, not even wanting to answer the daredevil pony’s question.
“Rainbow dear, please,” Rarity says to her friend, “If this is something personal to him, it’s best to not ask further.” She then turns to the stallion, “I’m so sorry about her darling, we’ll take your word and head to Ponyville. If you ever change your mind, just send Twilight a letter.” The others agreed, two of which, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, doesn’t like this turn of events.
Twilight gave him a saddened smile as she turns to leave the castle with the girls, but she couldn’t help but noticed his posture and how he kept himself distant from her and the girls.
As he watches the girls leave the throne room, he gave himself a saddening sigh and said to himself quietly, “You’re so stupid man…” he walks to the window as he could then see the mares hurry their way to the train station a few minutes later.
“You chose not to participate with them?” The princess of the sun as the stallion, “Even after you agreed to go with them yesterday?”
He shook his head and looked at the alicorn, “What else am I suppose to do, go with them and accidentally reveal my power to them? Nopony is suppose to know who I am in the first place!” He began to pace from side to side, getting frustrated with himself, “Had I said yes, that would’ve been a mistake, they would spread gossips about me, and they would think of me as a freak! I had a normal life Princess! A normal life! Even if it was just a stupid wish, I never wanted this!”
He hung his head in sadness once again. “Sometimes I wi… hoped that all of this was just a dream.”
…
“And yet, here you are.” She says to him, placing her wing over his shoulder, giving him a a gentle smile, “You’re here in Equestria, here where you can show your true self to ponies who can relate to you. But you turned them away. So I’ll ask again, why did you chose to not go with them?”
The young stallion just shook his head and looked outside once again, seeing that a train has already left to Ponyville. He looks at the princess and asks his only question, his voice quivers, “What must I do?”
Celestia placed her hoof on his shoulder reassuringly and she then tells him, “I think you already know the answer to that my little pony.”
She could hear the girls talking not just the situation at hoof, but about Wishing Star as well. “I wonder why he chose not to come?” Fluttershy asked out of curiosity.
Applejack and Rarity shrugged as the fashionista says, “He does seems really defiant of that awful brute and quite brave,” she then gave out a sigh, “Then again, no normal pony could really stand up against him.”
The daredevil snorts, “Since when are we normal? We’re the Elements of Harmony for crying out loud! Saving the world and kicking bad guy butts for free isn’t practically normal. Him? He looks normal enough.”
Applejack scolds her, “Rainbow, just because he’s a normal pony, that ain’t mean he can’t be special in his own way.”
Twilight couldn’t help but kept looking back at the hallway, having somewhat a glimmer of hope that the teal stallion would come out and say that he changed his mind… but nopony was following them, or did the sound of the throne room’s door open. Perhaps he really is scared of Discord and he’s trying to overcome his fear of him… she thought to herself, I guess confronting him like that didn’t work out… but why refuse to come to Ponyville?
Her self questioning will have to wait as the mares hurry their way to the train station and aboard the train to Ponyville, hoping that they weren’t too late to retrieve the Elements.
As the train comes to a stop, they could see that the entire town was already descending into a misshapen dystopia. Buildings were lifted from their foundations, the hills turned into a giant checkerboard, more of those cotton-chocolate clouds drenched the streets in a torrential downpour, and ponies everywhere were in a frenzy.
The mares were in complete shock by the sudden turn of events of how chaotic Discord can truly be. “Oh, I hope the animals will be alright after this is over,” Fluttershy says in a concerned tone, “I hate to see them suffer such cruelty.”
There wasn’t any time to dwell on the scene of chaos, they hurried to the Golden Oaks Library all the while avoiding any vines, falling walls, and confusing floors. Luckily for them, Rainbow Dash and Applejack provided them cover and helped working together every obstacles that the Lord of Chaos would try and pull on them.
Finally, after navigating through what seemed like an obstacle course, they’ve finally got to the Library. Spike was surprised to see the girls there and asked in worry, “Twilight! What’s going on out there!? It’s like as if Ponyville is turning itself inside out!”
“That’s why we’re here Spike.” Twilight explains to him, trying to calm him down, “We need the Elements of Harmony. Girls, search everywhere for-”
“Here they are!” Pinkie calls out, holding out a opened book containing the necklaces and a crown. The girls were surprised, especially to the point where Twilight was about to ask how she found them so quickly… then again this is Pinkie Pie.
She counted the objects that were in the book and gave her friends their respective necklaces and placed the crown on top of her head using her magic. “Okay,” she says looking at her friends, “Every Element is accounted for. Now, to find Discord.”
The mares trudged outside, looking high and low for the draconequus, then they heard a bellowed voice, “IMPOSSIBLE!!! How did you manage to find them?! How could an attempt to trick like that fail so quickly?!”
“Trick us?” Twilight said, she placed her hoof on her chin, then she recalled what the riddle was told from the Lord of Chaos himself and what Wish had decoded from it, “‘Find the Elements back where you began.’ Wish was right! That was part of your riddle!”
“Yes, but you claimed you’d start at the labyrinth first!” Discord growls, “You’ve got some nerve double-crossing me like that!”
“Wow, he was sure right about you being childish,” Rainbow said with a deadpan, “This is just really pathetic.”
The draconequus growled at the mares for a moment and realized something with a chuckle, “Well, what if your friend was wrong? Maybe they are fakes.”
The mares, except for the daredevil, gasped at the revelation. “Oh no, he’s right!” Fluttershy exclaims, “How can we tell if they aren’t replicas!?”
“No need to!” A young male’s voice calls out, everyone turns towards the source of the voice and sees Wishing Star, standing confidently as he walk towards the mares, “The biggest slip up he did was to try and switch out the elements or in this case, destroy them before you got to them first.”
Discord was stunned, completely in shock, how did this stallion knew about his plan, even Twilight could put two and two together that quickly… no scratch that, who is this pony that Celestia chosen? His words, for the first time in his life, stumbled in dumbstruck, “H-How did-” he then sighs as a throne appears behind him, taking a seat. “Well, go ahead. Use the Elements of Harmony on me, turn me into stone. You and your friend here have won the day.”
The mares and Wish were shock. He gave up? Just like that? “Welp,” Rainbow exclaims in anticipation, “You heard him!”
But Wish knew Discord better, he would give up any moment of opportunity without a fight. Just as Twilight’s horn glowed, the girls’ necklaces were shining brightly and all of them and Twilight’s crown shot a laser towards the Lord of Chaos. As the shot came toward him, a cocoon of chaotic energy surrounded the draconequus, laughing like a maniac. Wish knew it, this was a trap.
“Foolish ponies!” He calls out as the mares gasped, “Did you really think I would let you have a win this easily?! I am the Lord of Chaos! You cannot outplay me! It will take more than your pathetic Elements of Harmony to stop me!”
The teal stallion looked at the girls, his mind was racking with a million thoughts, what can he do to lower that cocoon shield? It would take a miracle for him to negotiate with the draconequus… unless he could- no, he said to himself he would never do it again, especially in front of his heroes or anypony at all… but what other choice was there?
He recklessly shouts at Discord, “Discord! You and your chaos will never take over Equestria! If things had ended differently for you, you could’ve lived a better life! In fact, I wished, right here and now, that you had a change of heart when the Elements of Harmony hits you square in the face!”
The girls, even Discord were quite confused by Wish’s demand, but the Lord of Chaos laughed it off, “Oh my dear boy, have you forgotten that embodied Chaos? This chaos will never end as long as I live! You have no power over-” Suddenly, his cocoon of chaotic energy was slowly shrinking, “Wh-what!? How is this possible!?”
The girls were confused as he was, that was until their attention was turned towards Twilight’s crown, emanating light green sparks of magic. Wish, realizing what’s about to happen, shouts, “EVERYPONY, GET DOWN!!!” Twilight quickly took off her crown and tossed it away towards Discord, but it was too little too late. A shockwave of green, purple, and white magical energy was sent out across the town of Ponyville, restoring everything to it’s original state. The mare were knocked by a powerful force, nearly causing Rainbow Dash and Applejack to hit their heads against the Library behind them.
Wish got the worst from the force as he accidentally rammed into Twilight, hitting her horn in the process, knocking him in to a daze. The last thing he saw was an image of Discord, looking around and then escape… escape to where? He didn’t know, nor did he knew that his wish had worked. He then passes out, blackness consuming his vision.
He then started to wake up, his vision being blurry at first, like as if he was looking through a phoropter. His sight became clearer as the first pony he sees was a worried Twilight which has melted away with relief as she exclaims, “Oh thank Celestia! You’re alright!” She hugged him tightly.
“Twilight?” He asked groggily as the mare released him from her embrace, “What happened? Where... Where am I?”
She released him and explains to him, "You're in the Ponyville Hospital. We found you unconscious and you weren't responding. You gave all of us a huge scare! I didn't think you'd ever wake up!" She then gave him a glare of seriousness adding, "Don't you ever do something reckless like that ever again! I swear, that would be something that Rainbow Dash would do!"
"Hey!" They heard the daredevil shout, causing Wish to look behind Twilight, the rest of the Mane 6 are here too.
"In any case," AppleJack spoke up, "We're glad to to see ya recoverin' Sugarcube."
He nods in appreciation, which leads Rainbow to ask, "Yeah, that reminds me, what caused you to show up all of a sudden? How did you found us that quickly? And what did you do to cause Twilight's crown to go haywire?"
"Um, maybe we shouldn't-"
"Nuh-uh," the daredevil cuts of the yellow pegasus, she then gave the young teal stallion a glare of her own, "I need answers, and whether he likes it or not, he needs to spill it."
"Rainbow dear," Rarity scolds her, "It's not right to force him to answer questions for us, even if there are thing that can't be explained."
Rainbow just looks at the fashionista dumbfounded, "Aren't you even the least suspicious of him?!"
"Darling, why are you seeing this as a problem?"
"Why aren't you seeing this as a problem?!" She shot back at Rarity.
"Perhaps," a older stallion's voice says behind them, a silver coated Unicorn stallion with a brass beard, "I can answer some of those questions." Next to him is a jet black pegasus stallion. Everypony immediately recognized them as retired Captain Gleaming Sword and Lieutenant Storm Rush. The two then headed to the hospital bed. "Heya kid," Gleaming greeting heartedly, "How are you holding up?"
"Better," Wish says with a grateful smile, "and surprised to see you here."
"As am I and by what you said Captain-"
"Please Twilight," The older stallion says with a chuckle, "I'm no longer Captain, you can just refer to me as Gleaming Sword, or Gleam if you'd prefer."
Twilight blushed nervously, she completely forgot nopony ever refered to him as captain anymore ever since her brother took that position. "Very well then," She resumes her qusetion, "You said you'd knew what Wishing Star did. Could you explain?"
The former captain nods and began, "Well, the power he has is something that nopony shouldn't have when Equestria was first found, the power of Wishes." Everypony, except Wishing Star and Storm Rush, gasped by this revelation.
Twilight looked at Wishing Star, who is wearing an embarrassed look on his face, even blushing. “Was…” she started, still surprised by the Wish’s power, “Was that why you didn’t wanted to come with us?”
He nods his head, but before the lavender unicorn could ask another question, Pinkie Pie threw an entourage of questions of her own, “You can make wishes!? Can you wish for cupcakes? Can you wish for parties to appear? Ooh! Ooh! Can you wish for-”
“That’s how he uses that power Ms. Pie,” Storm cuts her off, who was up close to a nervous Wish’s face only to back off to look at the jet black pegasus, “You see, Wish has a somewhat of a connection to one of the Elements of Harmony, Magic. Magic is the representation of Hope, and relatively, Wishes are a representation of Dreams.”
“That would explain why my Element surged out of control all of a sudden,” the lilac mare said “But this doesn’t make any sense, the Elements of Harmony should only have one user each. How is it possible for Wish to have some connection with mine?”
Storm resumes, “Well, as I stated, Magic represents Hope, and Wishes represents Dreams. Many scholars don’t know this, but many speculated that the Element of Magic is only one half of the true Element of Harmony itself.”
“Wait wait wait,” Rainbow stops him, “You’re saying there’s an actual Element of Harmony?”
“It’s only speculation,” The jet black Pegasus tells Rainbow Dash, “but if there is, then that would mean that there is a seventh Element somewhere, wherever that may be.”
Twilight looks at the teal stallion and then was about to ask, but Rainbow beats her to the punch, “okay, that’s all well and good, but why would Wish out of all ponies just have this power? Is he, I dunno, cursed?”
Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rarity gasps at the conclusion, but Applejack stated, “Rainbow, he ain’t cursed.”
“Sure does feel like one.” Wish said sadly, looking down in shame. It took him a moment to look up at his friends as he then says, “I’m very sorry… to all of you…”
“Why are you sorry about dear?” Rarity asked him confused, as was everyone else in the room, “You helped us take on Discord and practically saved Ponyville, if not all of Equestria from his chaos. Sure, we don’t know where he’s gone to, but he’s been defeated.”
“But I could’ve hurt all of you!” He said defensively, “I shouldn’t have gone with you… but I did anyway! Why! I don’t know! I just… I just… You shouldn’t be hanging around with a pony like me… I’m not a normal pony like any of you.” He was waiting for them to say that they understood and left him be, but instead he looks up at the girls, giving him a very kind smile of their own. “Well? Aren’t you going to say it?”
“Yeah! Who cares if you aren’t normal?!” Pinkie exclaims, which caught Wish off guard, “You being different from us doesn’t matter! If anything,” she leans over to give him a hug, “I think it’s great we have somepony like you.” She lets him go to see the still shocked expression on his face.
“Besides that, who wants to be normal anyways?” Rainbow adds, “We use to live a normal life until Nightmare Moon showed, and then bam! We became heroes! Then all of a sudden, you came along, you took on Discord and practically ran him scared! Why wouldn’t we have somepony like you?” She gave him a punch to the shoulder as she continues, “You were awesome out there man, give yourself some more credit!”
Wish couldn’t process the praise from Pinkie and Rainbow, then Rarity steps in to say, “You are appreciated dear, and we can’t thank you enough for your help. If you haven’t stepped in, I don’t think ever have a chance against that brute.”
Just hearing this praise he’s receiving, he has no idea what to say to them back. It was Twilight’s turn to speak, “You see Wish? You may have gotten this power, and you could hear many ponies saying that you aren’t anything, but to us? To us, you mean everything, including Gleaming Sword and Storm Rush. They saved you because they know how important your future is. We’ve inspired you to be a hero like us. Best part? You didn’t need an Element of Harmony to show how special you are, or how you use your wishing powers.” She then gave him a gentle hug as she then finishes her sentence, “You’re more than enough for us. You are enough.”
Now tears we’re leaking from his eyes and returned a hug. For the first time in his life, outside of Princesses Celestia and Luna, Gleaming Sword, and Storm Rush, who he considers as family, he has actual friends he can rely on. Back when he was human, all he had was just an apartment, and plenty of high school work. Now, he’s here in Equestria of all places where he took on his first bad guy and made good new friends.
“Citizens of Canterlot and Ponyville,” announced Princess Celestia. “We are gathered here today in celebration of these six mares, a young stallion, and this young drake. Thanks to their bravery, valor and friendship, they were able to defeat Discord, encase him in his stone prison, and save Equestria from his chaotic reign!” Cheers could be heard for their heroes of Equestria and two new others.
Wish couldn’t believe that all of this is still isn’t a dream, it has been three days after Discord’s attack and already praises he was given was something that he’ll never get use to. As he looks over to the girls next to his right, he could see they were proud of the accomplishment that they, including himself, did together. Over to his left however, he could see the young Drake felt somewhat overwhelmed.
“And now, I believe that our young stallion, Sir Wishing Star, would like to give a speech for all of Equestria to hear.” Celestia stepped to the side, allowing the teal earth pony to take the stand.
He gulped quietly, he never had to give out a speech before in his life, yet here he is, up on the stand, looking at the crowd of ponies, anxious and waiting to hear his voice. He clears his throat as he starts off, “Uh, thank you Princess, ahem, now I w-” he stops himself again from almost using that word, “I would’ve gotten a speech together, but time says, ‘Nope. Gotta do it now.’” The crowd and even the girls laughed a little from his joke, even he found it to be funny.
Before he was about to continue his speech, he suddenly felt a chill running down his spine. He looks up at the clouds to see that they were pitch black. If he remembers correctly, Rainbow said that there wasn’t supposed to be dark cloud to today. “Something’s wrong.” He says with caution in his voice. They were confused and everyone too then looked at the clouds. They seemed to be moving, almost alive in someway, that was until a familiar slim figure burst through.
It’s Discord.
The crowd were in fright to see him finally roaming once again. Terrified by his appearance, they began to panic, scrambling for cover for whatever plan of ambush he has for the heroes and Princesses of Equestria. Wish could see him coming for them, but his approach towards them seemed almost slow and solemn.
“Discord?!” Luna began to be defensive, “I thought the Elements of Harmony stopped you! Why are you here?!” The draconequus didn’t answer her, the expression on his face looked regretful. Wish felt like something was off, the Spirit of Chaos shouldn’t act like this, if at all. Did my wish really worked? he thought to himself.
“Ya’ll better give us one good reason to use our Elements again!” Applejack hollers at him.
“Please,” the draconequus requests, raising his paw and talon defensively, “There’s no need to get hostile towards me.”
“After freeing yourself and causing a wreck to Ponyville?” Rainbow retorts with a brow raised, “Yeah, we have a every right to be hostile.”
“I understand,” Discord agreed to Rainbow’s distrust towards him, “But if you can indulge me, I can explain myself, and if you still don’t trust me, then you can strip me of my magic and have me imprisoned.”
The mares, Spike, Wish, and the princesses looked at each other for a couple of moments in thoughts. Can they really trust him after the chaos had caused on Ponyville and it’s inhabitants? After taking the Elements and hide them away from their users? Celestia whispered something to his sister’s ear, of which she was shocked at first to her eldest sister tells her, “Just in case.” Luna nods as Celestia looks at the draconequus and warns him, “Very well, but at any point of trickery, we will not hesitate to use the Elements one last time.”
He nods in approval of the warning and appreciation for their time. “Thank you. Before I tell you, I must ask you a question.” Bracing themselves for yet another riddle, he then asked them, “Did you learn a friendship lesson from all of this?” Nopony from the stands or from the crowd would’ve ever hear a questioning from an enemy of Equestria, let alone the Spirit of Chaos himself. “You see, while I hid away the Elements, I happened to look through one of your journals Miss Sparkle, your friendship lessons that you written down. At first, I thought it was a stupid thing that Celestia had tasked you to do… but after the past three days, I’ve realized how important this was to you.” He began to form not a throne behind him, but a regular chair that you would see at furniture store or a cafe. “So, I ask again,” he says to Twilight, “Did you learn a friendship lesson from all of this?”
This wasn’t Twilight expected at all from him. “Um, w-well,” she stutters, her mind couldn’t comprehend that an enemy was asking her this question, “I-I… kind of did?”
“Kind of isn’t good enough.” Discord said plainly, then he looks at the rest of her friend and ask them the same question, and it was always the same answer, ‘Kind of.’ He then looks at the teal stallion and asked, “What about you Wishing Star? Did you learn a friendship lesson from all of this?”
Wish, just like his friends, felt like that this question was about as difficult beating him. But as he looked back at the past four days that had transpired, from meeting them at Donut Joe’s for the first time, to here and now at this very moment. “I do Discord,” He says to the Lord of Chaos, “I’ve learned that friendship isn’t always easy, but, there’s no doubt that it’s worth fighting for. If it weren’t for their inspiration and helped me realize my true destiny, I wouldn’t have discover how powerful friendship can truly be.”
Discord looked at him silently first, Wish felt like as if he said the wrong answer to his teacher. The draconequus gave him a friendly smile towards him, then at Celestia as he says, “You could learn a thing or two from him Celestia, he’ll be wiser than you by the time you kicked the bucket.” Celestia didn’t know if the compliment was out of mockery or honesty, but then Discord tells her, “A teacher can teach many things to a student, but sometimes a student can teach a thing or two for a teacher.” Celestia nods, agreeing to his exchanged words of wisdom.
Discord sighs as he then says, “Well… I guess it’s time.”. He stood up from his throne, and extended out his arms, ready to accept his ultimate fate. “”Go ahead. Strip me of my chaos magic and have me imprisoned. I’ll accept whatever imprisonment you’ll have me in.”
Wish looked at the draconequus, fully believing that Discord is being honest with the group and by some miracle his wish had worked! As he looks at his friends however, he could tell some of their faces say a different story. “Well, you hear him, let’s stone him!” Rainbow declares, she was about to launch herself to retrieve everyone’s Elements, but she looks at the unsure looks of her friends, “Uhhh… why are you looking at me like that?”
Applejack shook her head and says, “He ain’t lyin’ to us Rainbow.”
The daredevil’s jaw dropped. “WHAT?!” She shrieks, “It’s clearly obvious he is! Look at him!” She gestures her forelegs towards the draconequus, whom seems really offended.
“Well, if he was, my Pinkie Senses would’ve gone off.”
“And, pray tell, what Pinkie Sense function would that be Pinkie Pie?” Wish asked her curiously.
That would go unanswered as Rainbow Dash argues, “But he nearly wrecked Ponyville! We’re just gonna forgive him like that?!”
Rarity injects herself, “Be that as it may dear, it’s clear that he has a change of heart.”
Fluttershy nods and adds, “Besides, I wouldn’t mind having him as a friend.” The gesture she made Discord felt more appreciated by the yellow Pegasus.”
Rainbow was taken aback, all of her friends are buying this?! How in the hay are they even okay with this?! Wish came up to her and said to her, “Plus, isn’t being the Element of Loyalty’s point to be trustworthy and stick by their Allie’s side no matter what?”
Rainbow looked at the draconequus, who wears an honest and sincere smile. She gave out a frustrated sigh, “Okay, fine…” she flew up to him with a scowl before continuing, “But I swear, any sign of trickery, any point of betraying us, any point you hurt my friends-”
“I promise,” Discord tells her, “No harm will come to you or your friends.”
Her scowl never left her face. “As long as we’re clear on that.”
Celestia was the next to speak up as she clears her throat, “I’m grateful that you have reached an accord with the Elements of Harmony and giving up your ambitions of conquest, but there’s still the question as to why you’re here.”
Discord nods, “Yes. For that, I need to speak with you, and Princess Luna, in private.”
“Sure you’re not planning taking one of them out to dinner first?” Wish teases, wiggling his eyebrow.
That caused to look at one another, two of the three made the realization and blushes at the thought, to which Princess Luna ask, “What do you mean by that?”
“Oh, nothing.”
Discord got over the teasing jest as he then clears his throat, “As I was saying, this is a discussion that needs to be talked about in private.” Celestia and Luna agrees and they are escorted back to the the Castle.
Before leaving, she turns to the young heroes and tells them, “You go ahead and celebrate. I will send you a letter when this new information is given to us.” They all bowed to her and took their leave back to Ponyville, with the teal stallion recommending the mares to keep their Elements with them at all time.
Wish still couldn’t believe that this happened, he is with Equestria’s greatest heroes, being counted as one of them, defeated and changed the heart of one the bad guys of the show (earlier than expected,) and now he’s going to celebrate with his new friends and study friendship with his crush. His smile couldn’t be removed from his lips.
Rarity caught sight of the teal stallion, “Wish dear? Is everything alright?”
Wish looked at them and reassures her, “I’m fine. I’m just grateful to have ponies like you as my friends.”
All the mares and Spike smiled back him. Spike tells the stallion, “Hey, we’re glad that we’ve found you back at DonutJoe’s. If we haven’t met you, we wouldn’t be able to stop Discord in time.”
Rarity jumps in, “If anything darling, you’re the real hero.”
Wish looked at them sheepishly, “Heheh, y-you think I’m a hero?”
“You were very brave,” Fluttershy complimented him, “I wouldn’t know what I would do if I was in that position.”
“You could always use ‘the Stare’ on him!” Pinkie suggested.
This made the yellow Pegasus yelp and shiver, “I-I-I don’t know i-i-i-if that could work on somec-c-creature like him!”
“Sure it would Flutters!” Rainbow encourages the thought, “I mean, if anypony would fold themselves under the pressure of ‘the Stare,’ he totally would.”
“What’s ‘the Stare,’ that you keep mentioning?” Wish asked out of curiosity, even though he clearly knows what ‘the Stare,’ really is, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a refresher.
Rainbow chuckles evilly, “Hehehe, what’s ‘the Stare’? Show ‘im Flutters.”
“A-are you sure?”
“Go on, show ‘im!” She tells her, kind of sounding forceful.
The shy Pegasus gulped, but then she lets Wish have it as she looked at him very intensely serious. At first, Wish was very puzzled, he looks at Rainbow Dash and asked, “I’m quite confused, what is she doing?”
“Keep looking at her.” Rainbow tells him.
He does so, resuming his somewhat of a staring contest with the shy Pegasus, after about twenty-three seconds, he starts to get uncomfortable and says, “Uh, heh, okay, you can stop now.”
She does so and gave Rainbow Das ‘the Stare,’ as she says, “Rainbow you know that was not very nice.”
“Hey, he asked!” She raised her forelegs up in defense, but Fluttershy was not having it, giving her stare more intensity. Rainbow then too got uncomfortable and says, “Alright! Alright! I’m sorry! Tell her to stop!”
“Thank you.” The shy Pegasus obliges and returns to her kind state.
Jeez, I forgot how she can switch her moods that quick like everypony else here. Wish thought to himself. Also, Rainbow Dash, not afraid of anything, except for her cute Pegasus friend. “You know, you two at like a cute couple.” He remarks.
“WHAT!?” the two Pegasi asked in unison, then they shout, “No we don’t!” They then looked at each other, blush creeps on both mares and looked away from each other, with Rainbow whistling a weird tune, and Flutter used her mane to hide her blush.
Pinkie bounces up and down while she giggles in glee, “Ooh, I can’t wait until we get back to Ponyville! This party is definitely going in Equestria’s history books!”
“Do you always throw a party on occasions like this Pinkie?” Wish asked, once again, knowing his knowledge of Pinkie Pie, he already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear the word from the horse’s mouth (if you’d pardon the pun.).
“Of course I do!” Pinkie exclaims, “I do any kind of party anypony could think of! Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, including a cute-ceañeras!" He nods with a chuckle, there are times where he feels Pinkie’s energy can be too much, but there are moments here and there where she isn’t, and he’s glad it’s one of these moments. “Oh! I almost forgot!” She exclaims as she reached into her mane and out came a small green and orange plaid wrapped present. “I know it’s a little early for your party, but…”
He looks at curiously and carefully opens the wrapping. That wrapping’s too nice to be torn apart, he thought to himself as he sets the wrapping paper aside. He then opens the brown box’s lid and finds a small necklace and what he sees made his heart leap in shock.
Inside the box is a beautiful turquoise gem in the shape of a seven pointed star, being held around by a dapped bar necklace chain. He nearly dropped his gift, but he took it out. Then upon closer inspection, he realized that the star shaped gem acts as a locket. He opens the locket and this made him softly gasp as in the inner golden part of the locket is a picture of the Mane Six and Spike. As for the other side of the locket is a little quote that only had seven words:
”Never forget who your true friends are.”
He looked up at Pinkie Pie in a speechless surprise as she explains, “I know, it’s a little early for presents, but I had an idea to make very special for you as an early surprise! I found a gift shop for many jewelry and I had the idea of giving you a necklace like this one and-” she stops herself as she noticed his expression had not changed as he looked back at the necklace. “Wishing? What’s wrong?” She asked him
What did he even do to deserve this kind of reward and kindness? He doesn’t deserve this necklace, he doesn’t deserve being a hero despite wishing for it, he doesn’t deserve having friends like them, yet here it all is, all in his forehooves. All he did was just popping into existence into their world and helped stopping the bad guy by negotiations. Seeing everypony here for him, even if most of them didn't know him, made him feel completely warm and happy inside. He clutches the locket close to his chest, as a single tear rolled down his cheek hardly believing this was all real.
The girls and Spike could see his expression change and already they felt worried. “H-hey, why are you crying?” Spike asked him in concern.
Pinkie then looked at the turquoise stallion with a hay-ton of worry. “Is it the gift?! Is it the party?! Tell me, what’s-?!“ Pinkie was suddenly cut off by him jumping out of his seat and hugging her tightly.
“You girls didn’t have to do any of this.” He chokes through his sobs, “The real and greatest gift I’ve ever gotten is you guys. If anything, I should be thanking you guys.”
Pinkie was quite in shock for a few seconds, never in her life has anypony given her this much gratitude before, and out of all ponies who got so emotional about a simple yet special gift like a locket necklace, this means so much to her. She returns the hug, not like in a bear hug how she always does, but a tight hug for comfort.
Wish let go of the party pony, and wiped away the tears looking at the locket again. He can’t help but have a warm feeling in his heart that leapt with a enormous amount of joy.
“A’ight enough of this gooey sh-,” Rainbow was about to say a complete sentence, but she was looked at by her friends with both Twilight and Applejack giving her ‘the look,’ so she changed her last words, “Ssshow of emotions, we got a party to get to!”
Was she seriously going to swear in front of us, and in front of a child? Wish thought to himself, while he did his fair share of swearing in his time in Equestria, he wouldn’t even believe that Rainbow Dash out of all of the ponies he met would even swear in front of him. He just shook his head with a silly smile and looks out at the window to the train’s destination, Ponyville.
As the mares, Spike, and Wish entered Ponyville, it was once again bustling with life, but not as lively as yesterday. The teal stallion guessed it was probably that when Discord was released, he wanted to cause his chaos on the most populated and closest area at the time, and there are some ponies that are recovering from the attack, or might’ve been injured of Discord’s waxed floors or something that was caused in the chaos.
During their walk, Wishing Star noticed how close Twilight got, the sides of their front legs nearly touch… oh if he could hold her hoof, but then again, he needs to take things slow with her. Just because they share the same background, being studious, and goal ambitious, he wanted to have the time to know more about her.
As he then looked around the lively town, staring in awe of how peaceful it is even after a crisis has been averted. The lilac mare giggled at the turquoise stallion’s face of surprise, “Amazing how magic is able to get everything repaired, isn’t it?”
“It sure is,” Wish complimented, looking around the town’s reconstruction, seeing the other unicorns using their magic to repair the walls and exteriors of some of the buildings that were caught in the chaotic crossfire, “I’m quite surprised that you could repair glass with such magic. Kind of makes me wi-… use the word to make me a unicorn.”
“I’m sure if we figure out your powers, maybe you could!” Fluttershy says to him, “oh, um, if you’d wanted to, that is.”
Wish gave it some thought about it, controlling the power of wishes of all things? It may seem like an amazing idea… on paper. In reality? It’s scares him to wield such power. He shook his head out of such as Twilight spoke up, “Well Wish, there’s a lot of things to see around Ponyville. What do you want to see first?”
Wish looked around and felt a little nervous. “W-well, since you’re going to give me the tour, maybe you should decide.”
“Oh! Right, heh,” Twilight giggles with a blushes, then she gave it some thought, “Well, how about we start at Sugarcube Corner?”
This immediately got Pinkie Pie excited and she exclaims, “Oh oh oh, there’s so much to try there Wishy! Mr and Mrs. Cake would be very happy to meet you!” Once again, Wish got a little uncomfortable with her energy, but then again, she’s just excited to have a new friend around the town, so he really can’t blame her for being so. “Oh! Wait, I almost forgot about the party! You guys go ahead! See you later!” And like a bullet fired out of a gun, she took off in a flash.
Wish looked at his friends and asked, “Can you imagine what she’s like without going on a sugar rush?”
“I don’t think it’s the sugar rush she’s on dear.” Rarity says with a titter.
“Yeah, that reminds me,” Rainbow says as she looks towards the sky, “I remember the weather team saying it’s suppose to be partially cloudy today. I gotta go take care of that. Catch ya later!” She took off to the skies with a trail of a rainbow following behind her.
“Well pardner, looks like it’s just us.” Applejack tips her hat to the teal stallion, earning him a chuckle.
And with that the four mares, Spike, and Wish walked their way to Sugarcube Corner. The teal stallion couldn’t believe that he’s walking on the plains of Ponyville itself. He felt like that this isn’t real, yet it is. Spike took notice of the stallion’s awe. “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask, how did you manage to find us here? You know, when you came to help out Twilight and the others against Discord?”
“Oh, Celestia teleported me there,” Wish explains, following it up with a embarrassed chuckled, “After she gave me a good talking to, of course.”
“Oh! Here we are!” Twilight points at a very strange building, to earth’s standards it would be the most out of place buildings archetype. It looks like a gingerbread house with a brown chocolate roof with frosted on it, the tower being a layer cake in design with real candles on top, candy canes and more.
“Oh, looks good enough to to eat!” Wishing says excitedly, his gaze on the house locked on it appetizingly.
“Now now Wishing darling,” Rarity warns with a giggle, “It’s not for eating.”
“Drat.” He jokingly curses, “So, Pinkie said that the Cakes live here, correct?”
“Mr. and Mrs. Cake, they’re practically the owners of that place. They are very well known for their cakes, cupcakes, pastries, just to name a few. Pinkie Pie also lives and works there, right in the loft area. The tower with the layer cake design is her room. So if you ever want to get some goodies, this place is best place to get them!"
“Certainly does look like a place to even have something good there.” He remarks, “So good, I think I might have whatever they have in stock!”
“Don’t worry, we got plenty of time for that, but for now, let’s move on,” Twilight then guides him and the group to the next building. They strolled along through the town as the book smarts pony introduced him to Hay’s Hardware store, Flowers and Snacks, and the Bowling Alley.
Wish looked around, someponies stared at him, sometimes with smiles, others gossip about him. Despite some friendly faces, he can’t help but feel really uncomfortable. Then Twilight’s voice picks up in his ears, as she then guides him to the next building, “Next up, the Carousel Boutique.” She points at the purple and pink building. The top of the building had a merry-go-round theme with the two purple pony silhouettes and continued down to the next floor except without the pony figures instead with the purple bars where they would be, and in front was a door and a few windows.
Rarity then sighs in with pride, “Ah, the Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique, and magnifique!”
“Whoa…” he says, he knew what the place is like in the show, but in person, or in this case, pony, to see it up close is quite incredible, “I can see why Rarity is keen on doing business. She must be very proud of her work.”
“Oh, believe, you should never take her work for granted,” she remarks to him, “She’s very talented with making dresses and suits. Someday, she might make a suit for the Gala.”
“Or maybe now?”
The mares looked confused when he said that. “What do you mean dear?” Rarity asked him.
“W-well… um… How can I say it without being too explicit? Some mares are staring at me… and not just at me…” he then motions his head back to his rear.
“Oh?” She starts, slowly and surely, the message he’s trying to tell her suddenly got to her, she blushes and exclaims, “O-Oh my! Ugh, the nerve of some ponies, is there no dignity of privacy of other ponies?”
“That’s why I was hoping that you’d-”
“Oh, say no more darling!” She declares, “As a matter of fact, I’ve been working on some suits for an upcoming fashion line for the gentlecolts, but it will be most helpful if I can get a stallion to model for me for a bit.” She looks at me with fluttering eyes.
“Well…” he looked back at Twilight, then back at fashionista pony, “I mean, I can be a good source of help.”
“You will?!” She asked excitedly. He nods, then she began to squeal in joy, “OOH! Wonderful! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” she then proceeded kisses him repeatedly for each ‘thank you’ she has said. Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at the sight, seeing Rarity’s lipstick imprints on his forehead and cheeks. “I knew I could count on you, Wish! Now come! There’s so much work to do, and so little time!” She grabbed him and they zoomed across to the door inside boutique.
“I’ll come back and check up on you soon Wish!” Twilight calls out.
Oh boy, let the tie tying lessons begin. he thought to himself as Rarity began to take his measurements.
In through so many suits that Wishing Star wore, the next suit absolutely screams regal. A suit that some celebrities would wear at high class parties or the Grammy Awards, a black suit with white wing accents on the back, a white pop up collared shirt, black tie and pants. “Oh darling!” She gasps as she witnessed her work-to-perfection on Wishing, “You look absolutely smashing! You’d look like you could take the floor at the Gala!”
Wish look at himself in the mirror. He did look like quite the gentleman in the reflection, but of course, he’d never really see him at the Gala as Rarity mentioned. “I guess I could, eh?” He says as he adjusted the collar, “I could be an agent for a secret organization.”
The seamstress mare laughed, “Oh darling! Now now Agent Wishing, we mustn’t get too use to the suit. It just needs some finishing touches and then I believe that we’ll call it a day.”
“Why make any changes?” He then asks as he took the shades off, placing them back in the case, “If anything, I’d say that I agree that the suit looks really good.”
“Yes, but if I recall, you did say that you’d wanted clothes of your because you had a feeling of everypony staring at you.” She says to him as she helps him out of his jacket.
“Ugh… please don’t remind me…” he groans, then a thought occurred to him. Did Twilight ever get a good look when I confronted Discord? Oh god, please tell me she didn’t…
Rarity giggles, but then clear her throat, helping him out of the pants, the godforsakened tie, and the shirt, she then moves Wishing Star over to a table, and places some paper and pencils next to him, "Besides, since you've seen my designs, I am curious to see your own outfit designs you want me to make for you, but if it's not too much trouble to ask. If you're not comfortable with drawing you can tell me and I'll draw the design and make them right away!"
“Miss Rarity, I would be honored.” He bows as began to start to draw his design, while Rarity watches as he begins his craft. From the first stroke of his pencil, he could already begin to see what kind of an outfit that would standout from the rest of the outfits he had seen, he sees himself wearing a jacket, a shirt, and pants, with some additional pockets of course. Rarity couldn’t help but be marveled and at awe of Wishing’s drawing ability, she never seen such clarity and intent of an artist like him.
Minutes had gone by, and by the time he finished with the color, he sighs and looked at his work. “O-Okay…” he says nervously, “Be honest, what do you think of it?” He then held up the drawing to her and she was stunned.
In the drawing, he made a white jacket with a light sea foam green stripe running from the shoulder down to the sleeve, rolled up with the same color of the stripe and a button on them, and included a golden yellow shirt. The pants is very unique, in a charcoal black color with two pockets on each of it’s sides, one at the side of it’s hip and another one below it, the pant sleeve had a triangular point at the front of figure’s hind laps.
“Oh my goodness…” she said breathlessly, taking in the drawing, "I have no idea you were such a talented artist! Your drawings are beautiful! I’m surprised that you haven’t got-“ she stopped herself from what she was going to say and she almost hurt the stallion’s feelings. “O-oh, forgive me darling, I didn’t mean about that last part.”
“It’s okay.” He said, trying to play it off, “Anyway, how much do I owe you once they’re finished?”
She giggles at the question as she then says, “Darling, you don’t have to owe me anything, these clothes are on me for free.”
“F-for free?!” He asked in shock, he knew that Rarity is the Element of Generosity, but to be this generous of giving him clothes for free? He wouldn’t do that! “N-No way Rarity, I can’t-“ he was cut off by the white unicorn mare’s hoof in front of his mouth.
“Ah ah, not another word. They’ll be on me, and they’re for free. It’s the least I could do after what you did yesterday. Helping me and my friends, and braving against one of the most feared creatures of Equestria and having him a change of heart. And by looking at your drawing, I’ve decided on something and if it’s something that you don’t want, I completely understand.”
“W-what is it?”
“Well, you see dear,” she explains as she looked over at the other mannequins, “I haven’t had taken this thought to an account, but I think it would be nice to have some huge assistance in the boutique. So my offer is this: I want you to be my apprentice and a place for you to stay until you can find a place of your own.”
…
”YOU WHAT?!”
He screamed so loud , the whole ground shook, even Princess Celestia herself would’ve heard him.
“Now darling, no need to be loud.” She reassured him, “But yes, I want you to be my apprentice and I’m offering my home to you.”
He couldn’t believe it… he didn’t want to believe it… he didn’t just got asked to be working under somepony’s wing and work for her, did he? This had to be some sort of dream. “R-Rarity I… I don’t…”
“Like I said, if you don’t accept it, that is completely fine,” she reassured him with a kind smile, placing her hoof on his shoulder, “If you think I’m putting on too much weight on your shoulders, you can just say so.”
What could he say to such a deal like that? Should he accept it, this would be the biggest turnaround in his life! He could be well known! But then there’s a huge consequence if he does… that he would be recognized by his talents and Rarity being overshadowed by him. What if she’ll regret training him? What if she’d made a mistake having him here in her home? He looked back at his drawing, yes it is a very good drawing at first draft, but it just seemed too perfect! How can it just simply catch somepony’s eye like the Element of Generosity herself?
He then took a deep sigh and then made up his choice.
“You know what? I would be honored to be your apprentice.”
“R-really?!? She asked in excitement.
“Sure. Besides, you’d look like that you could use some help around here. Plus, it would be nice to have a creative team on board, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Oh absolutely darling!” She cheers as she hugged him.
Boy, at this rate, I’m going to the first human to get that many hugs in the first week that I’m here. he thought to himself as he happily returns the embrace, and as he did, he felt like he was going to cry.
She heard a sniffle from him, she stopped hugging him as she looked at him. “Darling? What’s wrong?”
“I-It’s just…” he started, as he wiped his eyes with his foreleg, “From the moment I left my home, I never had any big opportunities like this… and to have a place to live in than wandering around in the alleyways… it’s all thanks to you, I’ve got that chance. So… thank you.”
“Darling…” she held him a little tighter in their embrace.
It lasted for a few minutes as they heard a tiny voice, “Rarity, I can’t seem to find any fabric for the capes and-,” They turned to look at the little white filly with light purple and pink curly mane, “Rarity! Mom and Dad says to not make out with strangers!”
“Ugh, for the last time Sweetie Belle, we weren’t!”
Those two have been discussing this for the past seven minutes since the little filly caught them with their ‘Make Out,’ session. Wish could sense that there is some form of tension between the two sisters. He remembered that a situation like this in one of the future episodes, he just crossed into season two territory after all. This is has to be resolved sooner than later. Then he realized that during this entire argument, the fashionista didn’t even had the chance to introduce her little sister to him.
“Um, Rarity?” He interrupted the girls, “Aren’t you going to tell me who she is?”
Rarity looked at him a little shocked, “Oh goodness! I’m so sorry dear!” She clears her throat and turns to her sister, “Sweetie Belle, this is my new apprentice and our guest, Wishing Star.”
“Hello Sweeite Belle,” Wish says as he reached out his left front hoof towards the filly.
“Wait,” Sweetie Belle squeaked, “He’s going to be staying here with us?”
Her older sister nods, “He needs a place to stay until he can get a place of his own. For now, he’ll be staying with us.” The filly then looked at the teal stallion’s flank and was shocked. The fashionista took notice and asked, “Sweetie? What are you staring at?”
“How come you don’t have a Cutie Mark Mr. Star?” The white filly asked him.
This made him felt very uncomfortable with the question and did not wanted to answer that to a young filly like Sweetie Belle. Luckily he didn’t have to as Rarity tells her, “He’s been alone in all his life darling, so he needs help to find his talent.”
The filly gasps, “I wanna help! I wanna help!”
Wish couldn’t help but chuckle at the filly’s energy, knowing her as one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, there’s no way that anypony could turn them down. “Well, to have a fellow Cutie Markless pony would be a nice form of company.”
The little filly squealed loudly in excitement it had both Rarity and Wishing Star covering their ears. “I can’t wait! I can’t wait! Scootaloo and Applebloom are going to be so excited to see a new crusader in our ranks!”
Wish chuckles, “I’m sorry, crusader?”
“Yeah! Since you don’t have one, we could have another one as an official Cutie Mark Crusader!”
Well, as I live and breathe, he thought to himself, Joining the Crusaders? That’s something that I never imagined that would happen, aside from living in Rarity’s home and being her apprentice. He knelt down to Sweetie’s height and said, “That does sound like a lot of fun. What does a Cutie Mark Crusader do?” Of course, he already knew what the three little trouble makers did in the show.
Sweetie Belle explains to him, “We search for some activities we do and we try and earn our Cutie Marks!”
“Although,” Rarity cuts in, “Some activities are… well, somewhat extreme.”
“Speaking from experience?”
“Ugh, you wouldn’t believe the amount of times that those three are willing to do to get a Cutie Mark. One time they were competing in a talent show and…” she looked at Sweetie Belle who gave her an annoyed look, she continues on, “Well, let’s just say the results weren’t what they were expecting.”
Wish just nods as he took the info in, he remembers all too well on what those three took to get their Cutie Marks up until season five when they found their true calling. Suddenly, they heard the bells above the front door as Twilight, Spike, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack and Applebloom came inside. “Hey howdy hey pardners!” The country pony greets them, she then notices that Wish wearing one of Rarity’s suits, “Whoo wee! That’s one fancy lookin’ suit ya got on there Wishin’ Star.”
“Oh, uh, thanks Applejack,” he obliges as he blushes, “But uh, suits aren’t reeeeeally in my comfort… zone.”
He suddenly got caught in Twilight’s gaze, they couldn’t look away from each other from their silent staring contest. He couldn’t help but get lost in her eyes. “Wishing? Are you okay?”
“Huh?” He asked.
“I asked you how everything went with Rarity and then you just stared at me.” Twilight gave him an expression of concern. “Did something happened?”
“Oh, no Twilight, I just, uh…” He began to stutter, he looked at Spike who raised a brow at him questioningly, how is he going to say this without making the drake jealous? “Rarity actually got me to be her concept artist and assistant to her boutique.”
The mares and the baby dragon were quite surprised by the news. “Wow! That’s great news Wish!” Twilight says with delight, which earns a chuckle from the teal stallion.
“Not only that, but Rarity has allowed me to stay at her home until I can find a place of my own.”
Applejack giggled, “Well as Ah live an’ breathe. Ah was about to say that you could always stay at Sweet Apple Acres, but Ah guess Rares’ beat me to the punch.” She tipped her hat toward the fashionista in gratitude.
“Thank you Applejack dear,” she obliges with a little nod, “I will admit, I could have a couple of hooves to help out around here. Aside from that, Wish’s drawing just sparks creativity!”
“That reminds me,” The teal stallion cuts in, “Since this is a commission for the clothes I need, how much do I owe you?”
“Nothing darling.”
“Huh?”
“Consider this as early gift from me,” Rarity tells him with a generous smile, “It shouldn’t be too difficult for the shirt and shorts, the jacket may be a challenge, but I think I know the right material for it.” She took the drawing and then turns to Sweetie Belle, “Why don’t you go with Wishing Star and the girls for his tour around Ponyville? I’m sure he would like to see your club house.”
“Yeah yeah! We can show Wishing our clubhouse Applebloom!” Sweetie exclaims excitedly, “He’s going to be one of our new crusaders!”
“He is?!” The yellow filly asked excitedly, “Wait until Scootaloo hears about this!”
“A fellow crusader I take it?”
“Yep.” Sweetie Belle answer the teal stallion, “Oh! We need to make a cape for you Wishing Star!”
He chuckles at the two fillies new found excitement. After the group left the boutique, excluding Rarity as she will be making Wish’s new clothes, the two fillies racing ahead to find their fellow crusader. “You think those two are gonna be okay by themselves?” He asked the country mare.
“Those little fillies been together with each other like the heads of a cerberus,” Applejack tells him with a chuckle of her own, “As long as they know where we are goin’, they’ll be fine.”
“From what Rarity told me, I hope you’re right.”
“She we continue on with the tour?” Twilight asked him as they walked along through the town. She showed Wish many other sites like the Markets, Ponyville’s hospital, and of course, a book store. “Our next stop is the Golden Oaks Library,” Twilight announces as they came across a giant golden oak tree.
“Whoa…” he gasps, to see the library in such good condition before Tirek got out of Tartarus and attack Ponyville, he was in such awe. “If it was a treehouse contest, this would be one heck of a winner.”
Twilight giggled at the compliment, “Thank you Wish. Now that you mentioned it, this is where Spike and I live actually.”
Wish nodded as he looked at the lilac mare. “It looks like a nice home to live in too,” he remarks as he looked at the exterior, “Somewhere nice and quiet, but very homey and… well, home.”
“Redundant much redundant?” Spike asked rhetorically.
Wish blushes by what he just said which the mares giggled, “Sorry, I’ve seen many treehouses, but this is the first time that this took the name literally.”
The booksmart pony ceases her giggling and she took looked at her home. “I guess it does, doesn’t it?” She asked him.
They suddenly hear what sounds like a biplane coming for them. “What is that sound?” Twilight asked the group, to of which they have no idea… all but one.
Wish, knowing immediately who’s coming and immediately screams, “HIT THE DECK!”
“What deck?” Pinkie asked as everypony got down onto the ground quickly,”There’s no deck to-“ she discovered too late she got hit like a truck ramming through a barricade. Pinkie and whoever crashed into her started to tumble towards the door of the library and with a loud crash, the door busted down and the tackler was revealed to be none other than… Rainbow Dash.
Wish looked up to see the daredevil mare and rolled his eyes and in thought he says, Of course it’s Rainbow Dash. He looked down and immediately blushed as he wasn’t the only one to be on top of somepony else, he was on Twilight, who she too was blushing. Twilight couldn’t believe the position she and Wish were in right, but she couldn’t figure out out why she and her friend are blushing so much as she looked at his yellow starry eyes.
Their staring contest was interrupted by muffled noises from underneath Twilight. “Oh my gosh! Spike!” She exclaims as she shoved Wish off her and quickly rushed to the baby dragon. “Are you alright?” She asked her assistant.
“Ugh… did anypony get the number of that cart?” He asked as if he was drunk.
As the lilac unicorn helped up Spike and everypony else had gotten back up from their duck and cover, their attention turned to Rainbow Dash. Applejack’s the first to speak up with annoyance, “Consarnit Rainbow! What were ya doin’ that nearly caused to be in a pony pile?”
“I was just trying out a new trick!” She explains herself as she raised her forehooves in defense.
“By crashing into Pinkie Pie?” Wish asked with a chuckle.
Such a question made the daredevil mare blush as she looked at the party pony who was also amused. Suffice to say, Rainbow Dash did not find any of this funny. “Don’t get any ideas wise donkey,” She retorts with a suspicious glare, “If I’d know any better, I think that there’s a pony that you have eyes on~.”
Wish raised an eyebrow as he says, “Honestly and personally, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you don’t.” She says with her rolling.
Twilight was about to ask her what her friend meant, but Pinkie says, “Hey! The library’s open! Wanna check inside Wishy?”
The teal stallion went blank repeated the nickname the hyper mare given him, “Wishy? Wishy- I’m so sorry, but what kind of nickname even is that?”
“Your nickname silly billy!” She tells him as she escorts him to the Golden Oaks, “It’s a hobby of mine.”
“Aside from baking and party planning?”
“Yep!”
“Of course.”
As the six ponies and Drake entered the library, Wish is once again stunned by the interior of Twilight’s abode. The wooden bookshelves within the half circular first floor, a staircase leading up to a bed with circular window view of Ponyville, and of course, Twilight’s massive collection of books. “Whoa…” he gasps in awe, “How… how many books do you even have in here?”
The lilac mare giggles as she explains, “Well, I get new books at the end of every month and, as of right now, I’m at to one hundred and eight books.”
“That- that many?!” He asked in shock.
“That many.” She answers in a matter of fact tone.
“…”
“…”
“Honestly I was expecting many more, but holy moly, that’s still a lot of books.” He says to her as he began to walk towards one of the bookshelves, “And man, talk about such organization. This is quite an amazing collection of books.”
“Well, more are on the way.” She tells him, giving him a toothy smile
God, her smile, he thought to himself dreamily, It’s like she brighten anypony’s mood in the room. After shaking out of his thoughts, he looked at everyone in the room, who were giving him somewhat of sneaky smiles. He began to clear his throat, “Ahem, well, shall we continue on with the tour? I’ll be sure to come back here in case a new book has been in stock.”
Twilight nods as she once again leads the group and headed toward their next destination, Sweet Apple Acres. Wish is at the lilac mare’s side once again, and this caught the attention of the baby dragon. Spike could tell that there’s something going on with the stallion, and he knows it as he raises an eyebrow.
As they reached to the country side of Equestria, there in plain view is Applejack humble and friendly abode, Sweet Apple Acres. Once again, Wish was stunned to see such a home in person. “Ya’ll okay sugarcube?” AJ asked him in concern, making him turn to his towards the country mare, “Ya’ve been acting like a deer staring at a flashlight.”
“Y-yeah, I’m okay,” He chuckles a little as he looked at the barn house again, “I just didn’t think everything around here would be so… beautiful.” He then returns his look at the group, “I guess I wasn’t far off from calling it a paradise.” He then caught a whiff of something tasty. “Say, you girls smell that?”
They, except Applejack, had also caught a sniff of the delicious smell. Twilight concurs, “Yes, I can smell it.” then they all heard a grumble.
Wish could tell that there was a blush on the lilac mare’s cheeks, but he wanted to make doubly sure. “Okay, who set off an earthquake in their bellies?” He asked jokingly asks them.
“Uh, hehe, that would be me.” Twilight answers sheepishly.
“Well, how’s about we go on in?” Applejack suggested, “If I’d know, Granny Smith and Big Mac are probably makin’ our family apple fritters.” She then winks at her younger sister, who just giggles. “We might be havin’ dinner at the barn tonight. Ya’ll go on ahead of us Wish, Ah gotta talk to the girls ‘bout somethin’.”
Wish was confused at first, but seeing that this was probably something private, he nods and went to the barn, not even bothering seeing a smirk from either country mares. As he was at the barn, the Apples began to count in unison. “Three-two-one.” and all of a sudden, the barn came to life with light and confetti as there was a shout of “Surprise!”
“Oh dear.” Fluttershy says in concern, “I hope he took the surprise well.”
”APPLEJAAAAAACK!!!!”
Applejack giggled as she dipped her hat for a second, “Ah reckon he’s just fine.”
The party went on for hours, and Wish was looking around to see familiar ponies in the party. He could observe everyone that’s in the party as he remembers the names of everyone here, Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch… Mr. Carrot and Mrs. Cup Cake… Thunderlane and Rumble… Sweetie Drops and… Lyra Heartstrings? Wish took notice of the mint green unicorn mare who looks rather depressed, so he decided to go investigate.
“Hello there.” He greets the duo.
“Oh! You must be the Neighotiator!” Sweetie Drops exclaims in surprise.
“Heh, guess it’s true. News does travel fast here in Ponyville.”
“Oh, you have no idea.” She giggles, she then shook his hoof, “I’m Sweetie Drops, I own Sweetie Drops Candies that a couple of blocks from here.”
“Huh, I thought I’d smelled something sweet other than Pinkie Pie.” He jests earning a giggle from the light apple mare, he looks over at the minty green pony as he asks, “Who’s your friend over there?”
“Oh, this is Lyra Heartstrings.” She explains, then she leans in with a hushed voice, “You’ll have to forgive her depressed state. She’s been like this ever since the Parasprite incident.”
He raised a brow in confusion, when in reality, he knows what this ‘Parasprite incident,’ Sweetie Drops was talking about. In the tenth episode, a Parasprite swarm infested Ponyville. In one of the scenes, a Parasprite gobbled up the pie Lyra made for Sweetie. He couldn’t help feeling bad for the minty green unicorn, all of that hard work only to be ruined by a pest.
If Fluttershy haven’t taken by the little bug’s cuteness, I bet their lunch would’ve been great. He thought to himself in pity. “I can’t imagine taking a toll for her.” He said quietly to Sweetie.
She nods sadly as she replies, “And she worked so hard on it too.”
“From your tone, you sounded like you two have been through a lot.” He says to her.
She nods, “Ups, downs, everything in between. We’ve been best friends for a long time, but… u-um…” she looked around to see if anypony was in hearing range, then she urges him to come closer, and so he could did to hear what secret she’s been holding… even though Wishing knew what she was going to say. “I-I’ve… I’ve kind of been having feelings for her.”
He raised his brows in shock as he then asked, “How long did you feel that way?”
“S-since last week.” Sweetie Drop answers with her head hung.
This gives Wishing Star an idea and an opportunity. “Sweetie Drop, mind if I try talking to Lyra?”
Sweetie Drop gave him a very confused look. “W-well, like I said, she’s not very interested in talking to anypony at the moment,” she reminds him, “But I guess you’re more than welcome to try.”
“Thank you.” He says as he leaves the mare to chat with other ponies, while he has a chat of his own with the depressed mare. She isn’t paying any attention to the stallion walking up to her, looking at a couple enjoying themselves. “Hey,” he greets the unicorn, she just waves at him without eye contact. “I can imagine how hard you worked on the plan you for the pie you made for Sweetie,” he tells Lyra sympathetically as sat next to her, she’s not even saying a word back to him, so he continues on, “She told me that you made that pie for the both of you. Is that true?”
Lyra didn’t say anything back. She would not look at him, not even a quick glance, nor paying him any mind. He then looked at the couple, laughing and talking from behind the window. He could tell that something what she wanted and could already tell that she already loves Sweetie more than as a friend as well. “You know,” he begins again as he clears his throat, “I might help you with the predicament that you’re in.”
That’s when he notices a quick glance from the mint green pony’s gamboge eyes, darting away from the window to him, then to the table top. C’mon Lyra… there’s gotta be something to get you to talking. Think Cars, what’s the one thing that can make her tick? Then it got him thinking, she’s has an infatuation and intrigue of humans, that would be a good starting point! Careful Cars, one slip and she might figure you out by the time you can help her!
“You know, I was also told that you’ve been interested in… uh, what are they called again? Humans?”
This literally made Lyra jump and covers his mouth, surprising the turquoise stallion by this unexpected and swift motion. She looks around and then whispers to him, “You mean the Hue-Mans?” He nods yes, she then slowly let goes of his mouth and allows him to speak.
“What got you so intrigued by them?” He asked her. This then began to be full conversation between the two, the talk about the human kind and what makes them interesting to talk about. This took quite a pleasing turn for Wishing Star, considering the fact that he’s a human being trapped in a body of a pony, but then again, having to be in a pony’s body while listening to another pony talking bout humans is a very rare thing to behold.
Just seeing her happy is a good sign to see, but now he needs to press onto other matters.
“Say Lyra? Mind if we get a little off topic?” He asked.
“Um, sure?” She says in a questioning voice, “About what?” She took a sip of her water, but she was not prepared for the question at hand.
“Well, I’m not judging you and you don’t have to answer this, but do you love Sweetie Drop?”
She spat out the water like a geyser and coughed afterwards. She looks at him in shock with a blush. “M-me with Sweetie?!” She asked him, he nods confirming the question, “U-uh… well we live together and we help each other all of the time. A-and I kinda get a little warm feeling whenever I’m around her.”
“So you do love her?” He repeated the question.
“I-I mean…” she stutters, her blush getting redder, he knows she getting evasive, “Sh-she is a good friend to be around… and really cute.” She brushes the mane out of her eye view and sighs again. “I mean I really want to tell her, but I’m just… nervous.”
“Because you’re scared that she’ll judge you?” He asked.
“No no, I’m just scared that she… that she won’t love me back.”
That made his eyes went wide, he’s always heard this millions of times in movies and in real life, but to hear it from a character who is attracted to mares, how can anypony not love Lyra?! “Well, I’ll tel you this, if you’re not ready to tell her about how you feel for her, then just keep waiting until you’re ready. And if it helps, I can provide some assistance to help you win your fair mare’s heart.”
Now it’s her turn to have her eyes to go wide by his offer. “Y-you can help me?!” She asked.
“Absolutely.” He nods, “I know what it’s like to a fair share of crushes, believe me. Just set up a day, time, and place, we’ll se where we can go from there.”
“Done!” Lyra declares as she hugs him tightly.
“Uhn!! L-Lyra!!! Can’t breathe!!”
“Oh! Sorry!” She quickly let go of him.
Okay, I appreciate hugs here, but they seriously need to learn how tightly they’re hugging me! he thought to himself as he manages to normalize his breathing. He sighs in relief for his lungs, then he says, “Well, I gotta get going, Twilight’s giving me a tour here in Ponyville. Hope I see you again soon Lyra.”
“Okay, I’ll send you a letter when I need help.” She says.
It was within thirty minutes as some of the ponies left the barn to return to their respective homes until it was just the Mane Six Mares, Spike, the Cutie Mark Crusaders (who are in Applebloom’s room for a sleepover,) and Wish. He could notice Twilight, that is seated next to him, is jotting down some notes on her notepad. She looked up at him and when their eyes connected she chuckles nervously.
“We’re you studying me?” He asked her with a raised brow.
She giggles as she swept her bang back with her hoof, “Yes I was. I was seeing as to how you were when in a public area. I hope it wasn’t too much trouble.”
“Oh no. Not all.” He reassured her.
“I saw that you were talking with Lyra earlier,” Twilight says to him, “What were you two talking about?”
He sighs and then says, “I’ve offered to help Lyra to get hooked up with Sweetie Drop on a date. But I don’t know the first thing about dating!”
The fashionista titters, “Well, you’re in luck darling. I happen to know some of the tidbits of dating.”
He sighs in relief and thanked her, “Rarity, you’re a lifesaver.” That earn a raised brow from the baby dragon again. He better not get too clingy with his crush.
“Out of the blue question, but what kind of ponies are you into?” Rarity asked him.
That made both Twilight and Wish turn their heads towards the fashionista mare. “U-uh,” Wish stutters as he began to look away from the white unicorn, “That’s… more of a private question Rarity.”
“Oh come now, darling,” she says as she gets close to the stallion’s side, “It’s just a simple question.”
Spike and everypony else was now too intrigued. Then Wish deflects thee question at the mare, earning him an idea and for more further intel of the group, “Well, what kind of pony are you into?”
She giggles at his question, “Ohoho, having a lady answer the question first are we? Such a gentlestallion.” She then took a moment to ponder as she places her hoof to her chin, “Well, let’s see… I really want to have somepony that would be daring and a gentleman. I want somepony that would charming, but also would be a nice help around the Boutique when it’s, oh, how would you say it Rainbow?”
“‘Go time?’”
“Yes, thank you darling.” She then sighs dreamily as she continues, “I just wanted somepony to be kind and very generous towards others, and share the view of the world like I do.” As she snapped out of her dream state, she noticed how everyone was staring at her, some were smiling, while some would incline to agree. She then clears her throat, “But, enough about me dear, would you care to share?”
“Well,” he says with a sly smirk, “It wouldn’t be very gentleman of me if I didn’t let all of the ladies share their thoughts?”
Applejack and Fluttershy were blushing at the thought, while Rainbow Dash and Twilight were given confused looks on their faces. Pinkie Pie and Rarity were giggling about the situation. “Dodgy I see…” Rarity says as she regained her composure, “but I suppose that it wouldn’t be very polite of the girls share their ideals. Very well then. Applejack dear?”
Applejack huffs in a trailing thought, “To be quite honest with ya’ll, Ah never had that much thought into that kind of life. Ah honestly don’t see mahself with anypony any time soon, but if Ah did, Ah wanted to have somepony who’s a hardworkin’, applebuckin’, and bravest pony that ever lived.” She dipped her hat up with a sigh, “But, as Ah said, Ah honestly don’t think Ah can throw that kind of hoedown in such a way with how mah work has been.”
Wish and Twilight could understand where the country pony’s coming from, working all the time and got no time for a relationship, it’s to even not think of it. “What about you Pinkie Pie?” Wish asked out of curiosity.
The pink earth pony giggles, “Ooh, I know the pony I love would love things I do! We would have a lot of baking ideas, and having party plans! We’d be partying til we’re purple!”
“And have cupcake children I would guess.” Wish jests, leaving the room in a awkward silence.
“…”
“…”
“What?” Pinkie asked him.
“N-never mind Pinkie,” he stutters, and then turns to Rainbow Dash moving on from the failed inside joke, “Got anypony in mind for you the future?”
“Pssh,” The daredevil scoffs, “Not really.”
“What about that Wonderbolt that you saw at the Gala? Soarin I think his name was?”
The light blue pegasus blushed at Wish’s mentioning of the veteran Wonderbolt, “O-okay, so maybe I have a crush on him, but like, have you seen the guy? He’s practically older than I am!”
“Yeah, so?”
“By eighteen years!” The teal stallion blushed by her finished answer, making him turn his head away from her, leading into an awkward silence once again for seven seconds as she continues, “Though, if I were to have somepony by my side no matter what, it would be somepony that could keep up with and that I could trust.”
That could be anypony in this group Rainbow. the booksmart mare thought to herself, still, it would be nice to have somepony like that.
Wish then looks at the shy pegasus and then asks, “Fluttershy?” A small yelp escaped from her and realized she was being asked next, “You hoping to have somepony in the future?”
“Oh, well… u-um,” she begins to stutter, “I would like to have somepony that is braver and stronger than me. I’m not sure… how the animals would react having another pony live around my cottage.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning that I would have to either live with the pony I’m in love with, or that the animals would have to accept the pony that’s staying with me.” The light yellow pegasus explained to Twilight.
Wish took those words into account in thought, he never knew that Fluttershy’s view would lead into such a conclusion like that. He thought that with a pegasus like Fluttershy, she would no doubt be, well, shy around this kind of topic, but to hear this kind of conclusion from her, it made him think to her relationship with Discord later down the road. Is that why she was comfortable having the draconequus in her home?
“What about you Twilight dear?” Rarity asked the lilac mare which snapped Wish out of his thoughts.
“Oh… well, to be honest with all of you,” Twilight began as she looks a little, “I never really experienced love before. And I don’t mean the kind of love that your family and friends would often give you, I mean true love.” The mares gasped in shock, Pinkie’s more longer than the others, while Wish looked at her in surprise and Spike had no reaction. “I know, shocking,” she says sarcastically to them as she once again sighs, “Plus, you know how busy I always am with writing letters to Princess Celestia about my friendship studies.”
“When was the last time you ever actually take a break Twilight?” Wish asked her out of curiosity.
She responds to him as she shook her head, “Never did, unless it’s an emergency.”
“It’s true.” Spike concurs, which now his and everypony’s attention are to the teal stallion, which the young drake asking him with a raised brow, “So, how about you Wish? Any pony you’ve been seeing?”
The stallion could hear how Spike’s drag of suspicion with a hint of jealousy. Better choose my words carefully with him, Wish thought to himself with caution, he took a deep breath and began, “Well, I did thought about it before I met you guys, and… honestly, I don’t think anypony would be… well, attracted to me, if you count those ponies that were staring at my flanks.”
“Why would you think that dear?” Rarity asks him in confusion, “If anything, I think you’re a very attractive pony, especially for your age.” That caused the teal stallion to blush as he stares at Spike, the judgement and jealousy radiating from his glare.
He chuckles, “Well, I’m glad you think so, but to be truthful with you think so-“
“I know so dear.” She cuts him off, “Sure, your mane is messy, and you do have an attitude that says ‘defensive,’ but overall, you are indeed a very attractive pony.”
Is she trying to make Spike jealous on purpose? Wish thought to himself, knowing that the young drake is giving him the eye. “Well, thank you Rarity.” He bows his head a little as he clears his throat, “As for what kind of pony I want in my life… well, perhaps who has a positive outlook on the world, loving, intentionally and unintentionally funny, smart, and who wants to be treated like a princess without an attitude like Blueblood.”
“Yeesh, I can’t think of anypony that would fit that description.” Rainbow Dash says as she took sip of her fruit punch.
“Neither can Ah,” Applejack said, “‘Specially if it’s a pony from Canterlot. Ah mean, we all have experienced how much of stick in the mud they are. Not to mention the nobles there.”
All stuck up, but one. Wishing Star thought to himself as he looked at Twilight, who is one again writing down notes. Why do I keep staring at her? I mean, sure, she’s cute, lovely, smart, and not to mention powerful with how she uses her magic, but I’m just me.
“Oh! I almost forgot!” Rarity exclaims as she uses her magic to carry a thin white box with a teal green ribbon wrapped around it, “Here you go darling. Your clothes, as requested. Almost didn’t bring it with me, you know how busy like a bee a mare like myself can be.”
“I might get such a experience when I get to work.” He says as he gently took the box. He opens it, and in it contains three pieces of clothes; a golden yellow t-shirt, a white jacket with a teal green stripe down on both sleeves, and a charcoal black hock high shorts. “Wow, Rarity these look amazing! Fabulous even!”
The fashionista titters at his response, “I’m glad you liked them darling. Go ahead dear, try them on.”
He nods as he took off his necklace, left it on the table, and went to try on his shirt first, which it is a little loose, but it’s a comfortable fit. Next he tried on his shorts, and it too is a comfortable fit, a shame he had to hide his blank flanks, but it’ll have to do for now. Finally, he tried on his white jacket, it’s texture was leathery, like the kind bikers would wear back in his old world.
His attire now complete, he showed them to the girls, which they all gasped in awe. Rarity spoke up first, “Darling! You absolutely-!”
“Hold on,” he says pausing her at mid-catchphrase, he then grabbed his necklace and puts it back on around his neck and then looks at Rarity, “Okay, you may continue.”
“Astonishing!” She finishes, not what Wish was expecting to hear her say, but then again, it was nice of her to say, “I do say, I think might have gotten the jacket to be over the top with the leather.”
“Not at all Rarity,” he explains, “In fact, I think you did a pretty good job with it.”
She giggles at her compliment, “Such a gentlestallion. Thank you dear.”
He looks back at Spike once again, he can now see jealousy was going through the roof. I seriously hope that he doesn’t go Godzilla on me, he thought to himself, the last thing I want to go on a rampage through Ponyville because someone else has crush on his crush. I’ll have to find someway around this.
As the evening continues on, with the girls complimenting on Wish’s clothes, they all decided to stay over Applejack’s for the night. There was so much that happened over the span of his first week in Ponyville, but it isn’t over yet it seems as he was about to head to the guest bedroom, he could overhear a conversation from the CMC. It was too muffled to hear them, he could tell that they were up to something. So they have a plan for me tomorrow, he thought to himself, he yawns and began to rub his eyes. Guess I’m gonna have to find out tomorrow.
He went in the guest bedroom and began to strip himself down of his clothes, neatly fold them, and puts them and his necklace on the nightstand. He then tucks himself in and began to recount everything that happened today, but also recalls of the many other adventures that would be coming up in the future. But for now, he shuts his eyes and entered in the world of sleep.
Suffice to say, he did not get that much sleep. He kept waking himself up and going back to sleep. Did the Star that transported him here suddenly gave him sleep insomnia? He kept only thinking of the future of what is going to happen. He could only think back to the interaction with the Mane Six and Spike.
His interaction with Spike has been off with a rocky relationship. At first, he seemed chill with Wish, getting along about Twilight, talking about guy stuff, but then came in Rarity, who was being kind to him which oddly gave Spike enough jealousy, and when he tried to talk to him, asking him if he was okay, the only response from the young drake said through his teeth, “I’m fine.” I gotta find someway to help Spike and get him out of this jealousy. he thought to himself as he looked at the night sky from the window, Not to mention his greed induced bigness, that’s coming up in the next few episodes. Maybe Zecora could conjure up a potion or a pendant?
Speaking of Rarity, while he is appreciated by Rarity’s generosity, giving him a place to stay and a job that required his talent as an artist, that doesn’t mean that she’s practically perfect in every way possible. He remembers all too well about that one episode where she and Sweetie Belle had an argument about the Sister Hooves Social, seeing it too ‘uncouth,’ as she put it. There has to be some way to convince her to go. Maybe I could help Sweetie Belle for breakfast and maybe give her a boost of confidence to have them go?
Then there’s two of the stubborn ponies known to man, Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Those two competitive knuckleheads are always shown to be rivals and friends, but sometimes they can get too competitive, especially with Rainbow Dash. She always been full of herself, especially with that huge ego she carries. There’s gotta be some sort of way that I can take that down a notch. And Applejack’s honesty is way too brutal, especially towards her friends. She seriously needs to be careful about what she says.
And of course, there’s Pinkie Pie, a whole bundle of energy and the defier of physics. While many of MLP community agrees that she’s the Deadpool of the show, breaking the boundaries and the fourth wall from time to time, he’s quite surprised that she hasn’t told anypony about his true identity. Probably might be the fact that her Pinkie Sense hasn’t gone off (though he has no idea what function that would be,), or, and he’s hoping it isn’t the case, that she already knows and she’s waiting for a Pinkie Promise to come around between the two of them. There’s no way she could already know. Though, her ability of making things pop out of nowhere could be useful, but I need to be careful whenever I’m around her.
Finally, Twilight Sparkle… where to start with her? Firstly, Lesson Zero, since she’s always uptight about sending a friendship letter to Princess Celestia every single day, it’s like it’s the norm to her! Not that he doesn’t mind, but he has to do something that would have make her slow her role of letter writing and sending. Then there’s the fact that she’ll become an Alicorn herself… yep, the good ol’ controversy and the divider decision in the community. But, should I let her be an Alicorn? I mean, if I do then there’s gonna be a lot of weight on her shoulders and take on way too many responsibilities at once!
So much to do, so many decisions needed to make, and isn’t taking into account to the future episodes. I really need to make myself a plan for the days ahead. he thought to himself as he got back into the bed, with small yawn, he fell back asleep.
It was close to ten o’clock in the morning, Applejack and Pinkie Pie had already prepared breakfast for everypony, scrambled eggs, hay-con strips, Applejack’s apple cinnamon rolls, and Pinkie Pie’s special make pancakes. Around Ponyville, both Applejack and Pinkie Pie are very well known for their banquets of food, and they were considered the best in all of Equestria.
The Mane 6, Spike, and Cutie Mark Crusaders were wide awake and enjoying their breakfast, but they eventually noticed that one pony isn’t present at the table.
“Does anypony know where Wishing Star is?” Asked Twilight looking around kitchen.
“Poor fella must’ve still be fallin’ asleep,” Applejack chuckles, “Ah’ll be bettin’ that the party must’ve taken a toll on ‘im. Applebloom, mind if ya’ll go wake him up an’ let him know breakfast is ready?”
“Sure thing sis!” AB says cheerfully as she excuses herself from the table, went upstairs and entered the guest bedroom. There he is, still under the covers and sleeping peacefully. “Wish?” She says to him and she shook him gently at first, the only response was a very tired groan from him. “Wishin’ Star?” She tries again, shaking him a little harder. Again, he groans.
Then Applebloom came up with an idea, so she went in to her room, grabbed her trumpet, she always keep it in case she needs it to wake up her sister or her fellow Crusaders. She went back in the guest bedroom, have the trumpet next to Wishing Star right at his midsection. She then inhales and blows through the mouth piece, playing a high note so loud, it caused the turquoise stallion yelp in surprise, landing on the floor with a thud on his rump.
“Great! Yer awake!” She says with pleased look on her face, “Big sis and Pinkie Pie’s made breakfast! See you at the table!”
As she leaves, Wishing Star just lays there on the floor, wondering how would he fall for the classic ‘Wake Up Call by the Trumpet,’ gag? He groggily gets up off the floor and went downstairs, seeing the happy faces as they all say in unison, “Wishing Star!” He just groans tiredly in response.
“Ya’ll alright pardner?” Applejack asked him, he just sat next to her and gave her a glare, she knows that look all too well as she chuckles, “Ya’ll got some sleep?”
Just seeing her that smug really wanted to grab her own rope and lasso her, tie her down to a bed and see how she likes it when a loud trumpet comes blaring through to her ears. After a sip of his coffee, he sighs and says, “Not really.” The cowpony’s amused look disappears and is replaced with concern, “Took a long while for me to reflect the previous week. I just can’t… help, but be grateful for everything that you girls have done. I couldn’t sleep because of it.”
“Aww… somepony can’t keep the sleep out of his eyes,” Pinkie Pie says giving him a pat on the back, earning him a tired smile.
“You know, I too happened to go through the same thing Wishing Star,” Twilight begins, “You know, before I moved to Ponyville, I had to stay up all night to work on a spell that was supposed to impress Princess Celestia, but the hours of work I had to do that spell, ugh, nothing but preparations and safety procedures! I didn’t get any sleep until around three in the morning! The next morning I felt like a tuba was blaring over and over again and-“
“Uh, sugarcube?” Applejack interrupts her as she points to a once again sleeping Wish.
The lilac unicorn blushes that she had no idea that she was talking to a sleeping stallion, but then again she couldn’t help but giggle how peaceful he sleeps. As much she wants to continue watching him like this, he really needs to get up and drink his coffee.
“Wishing?” She asks as she pokes his side.
He suddenly jolts awake and shouts, “I’M PANCAKE! I-I’M MEAN I’M AWAKE!” He could see that everypony was giggling, confused as to why, he looked at Twilight, seeing she’s pointing at his chin. Touching his chin, he realized that he got whipped cream on him. Grabbing a napkin and wiping off the whipped cream from his chin, he sighs once again, “Sorry girls… Like I said, not enough sleep.” He then took a sip of his coffee.
Sweeite Belle then whispered something to her fellow Crusaders, something that Wish couldn’t make out. Then she looks at the teal stallion and says, “Hey Wish, we thought about something, since we’re going to be Crusading today, we were wondering if you could choose today’s activity?”
This was unexpected to him, choosing a crusading activity? He was a little nervous, as he knows those three well enough that they could cause trouble. He kept wondering and puzzling as to what they should do… then, he figures it out. “You know,” he says to the fillies, “There’s actually a place, when I was a little colt, I wanted to find and where I was named after.” This caught the Crusaders attention, as well as the mares and Spike.
“And, pray tell what would this place be?” Rarity asked him.
“It’s called… uh…” his words stumbled, everyone has their eyes on him, his mind was screaming at him, For god sake man, think! Just pick a random tale and just go with it! “The Fount Well of Wishes.”
Silence looked in five seconds, then Twilight exclaims, “The Fount Well of Wishes?!” It nearly made Wish jump and fall off of his seat. He readjust himself and asks the book smart mare, “You know of it?”
“It was told in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns!” She explains to him, “I’m surprise that you know the legend of it!”
He chuckles, knowing that he was just making up bullshit, but now finding out that this place is an actual thing, he clears his throat, “W-well, since you have more knowledge about the place, m-maybe you could tell them about it?”
“Ah thought that you’d knew about the place?” Applejack asked suspiciously with a raised brow.
“Oh, well,” he begins to explain, “you know sometimes that you would forget some certain things, but somepony else does. Plus, it’s been a while since I’ve recall about the legend.”
Twilight jumps in, “And for that, I’d be happy to accommodate.” She clears her throat as she begins to tell the tale, “Many moons ago, a mare in pink with a prismatic mane had been known for helping ponies wishes come true. She was known as the Lady of Wishes, her true name was never known. Many considered her as a celebrity in ancient Ponyville, however one day, she made a huge mistake. A pony made had wished from the lady to be known as the most recognizable and famous pony of all… his wish was granted, but it somehow backfired on her. The fame became too much for her to handle, so she retreated somewhere deep into a forrest and a magical pillar of light shot out to the heavens. As for the pony who made the wish, he was never seen again. Some speculated that the pony was banished from Ponyville from his trickery and drove the Lady of Wishes away.”
He was speechless and was now becoming concerned about his power of wishes. If her powers would backfire… would this applies to me as well? he thought to himself in the worry.
“Goodness,” Rarity says as she has her hoof to her mouth, “How can one pony be so selfish and causes the Lady to go into hiding?”
“More importantly,” Wish cuts in as he raised a brow in curiosity, “How can one pony learn such magic to reflect a wish?”
Twilight just shook her head sadly, “Nopony even knows. But according to some researchers, the entrance is within the Everfree Forest. The Lady of Wishes has placed all sorts of traps in her home to keep out intruders, for she believes that the backfired wish is still in it’s affects.”
“Did somecreature mentioned the Lady of Wishes?” a voice asked, everyone was looking around as to who was speaking.
Wish rolled his eyes, knowing full well as who this is and says, “Yes Discord. We did.” The draconequus head popped through the table and made Wish jumped out of his seat once again, this time falling on the ground on his rump. “Ow…” he groans as he rubbed the area between his flank and tailbone.
“Oh, my apologies for frightening you,” Discord says sincerely, as he went through the table and a chair materialized, “I gotta keep these bad habits under control.”
“Mind if Ah ask what where ya doin’ eavesdroppin’?” Applejack asked in a questioning tone.
He materialized a tea cup and took a sip, “Eavesdropping? Why my dear Applejack, I haven’t dropped any eaves at all.”
“Uh… was that a-“
“As a matter of fact,” He cuts off the teal stallion, “I was just on my way here to give you a message from the Princesses themselves.” He hands out a scroll and gives it to Twilight, she opens it as she reads it to herself. “As I was asking, you mentioned about the Fount Well of Wishes?”
“So what if we did?”
“Rainbow calm down,” Fluttershy reassures her prismatic friend, “I’m sure Discord is just curious.” Rainbow just gave him the glare whom of which just shrugs.
“Why are you so curious about the Fount Well?” Rarity asked him.
Discord chuckles, “Why, I happened to hear many wonderful things about her years ago, very kind and generous. It is quite displeasing to hear that she had live her life in exile.”
“Wait,” Wish paused realization, “You knew the Lady of Wishes?”
“Oh, well, heh,” Discord seems to be dodgy, “I knew of her, I never actually met her.” He cleared his throat as he took another sip of his tea, “However, I knew where the entrance to the Fount Well is.”
This got the Crusaders excitement to show and made them gasp. “Can ya show us?! Can ya?! Can ya?!”
Now this got the draconequus really nervous, “Oh, well, I uhhh… I don’t know…”
Wish knew what’s coming up next from the crusaders, but he thought up a little bit of fun and build up that anticipation, “Oh, come on Discord,” Wish teases the spirit of chaos, “It’s every foals dream of going there and making their w- ahem, you know what, come true. You wouldn’t want to leave these kids disappointed, do you?” Cue the puppy eyes from the Crusaders.
“Erm, w-well…” Discord became flustered and then he looks at the teal stallion that made him raise a brow, “Okay, what are you doing?” What Wish doing is replicating the same puppy eyes as the Crusaders were doing. “Okay, can you stop doing that?”
“Please?” The crusaders begged, the puppy eyes effect is taking hold of the draconequus.
He gives in and sighs, “Oh, alright.”
“YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!” The fillies’ cheer of excitement made everyone in the room covered their ears, then white unicorn filly tells her friends, “Come on! Let go get our stuff!”
They hurried to their treehouse all while Wish just chuckles, “I just know this’ll be one heck of an adventure.” Twilight prodded her earth pony stallion’s side, getting his attention immediately. She gives him the drawing that he made years ago. “What’s this for?” He asked her.
“I figured you’d want this back.” The lilac unicorn explains to him.
He was a little shocked at first, he then looks at the drawing looking at the silhouetted filly. He then just smiles and tells her, “That’s okay. I don’t need it anymore to figure out who she is.”
“Y-you don’t?!” Twilight asked in surprise, including everyone else, excluding Applejack and Discord from upon looking at the picture, they’ve already put two and two together.
“Besides, I feel like you needed this more than me.”
“Ya’ll know who she is sugarcube?” Applejack asked him with smug look on her face with a brow raise.
He knows that look and could already tell that she now knows who that silhouette is, but he plays it off, “I guess I do. I just need to know her name so I could thank her for my well w… y-you know.” As the Crusaders came in, saddlebags on, waiting anxiously for the teal stallion. “Besides,” he says as he heads out the door before he says his farewell, “I think you already know her too Twilight.”
With that cryptic message implanted in the lilac unicorn’s mind as she raised her eyebrow, the Crusaders, Discord, and Wish has left the home. I already knew her? Twilight thought to herself, understandably confused, What the hay does that even mean?
“You good Twilight?” Rainbow asked.
Twilight just lays back on the chair, having that sentence repeating over and over again. She then came to a conclusion, “What he just said sounds so… weird.”
“I’m sure he didn’t mean to phrase it such a way darling,” Rarity tells her.
Applejack just chuckles and shook her head, surprised that the smart one of her friends hasn’t even figured it out yet. Rainbow and Twilight took notice and the pegasus asks, “What’s so funny?”
“Heheh, Ah’ll tell ya later,” the country pony says as she looked at the clock, “Well, landsikes, look at the time! Ah gotta get that field plowed.” She got up from her chair and says, “Ah’ll be seeing ya’ll later!”
Twilight was dumbfounded, “B-but-“
“I must return to the Boutique,” Rarity tells the girls as she too got up from her chair and headed out the door, “Ta-ta!”
One by one the girls left the home until it was Rainbow Dash and Twilight, who was left in a state of confusion and befuzzlement. She then looks at the light blue pegasus and asked, “Any idea what Wish meant by that I knew this filly?”
“Beats me,” Rainbow shrugs, “He’s seems good with riddles though.”
“It’s no riddle Rainbow! He now knows who this filly is!” She grabbed the daredevil by her shoulders and exclaimed, “I got to find out who she is! I just got to know!” She hurried out of the door and hurries back to the library, leaving behind a befrazzled Rainbow in a state of confusion.
“… Am I seriously missing something here?”
The Crusaders were giggling and talking about what they’re going to wish for, no doubt about their Cutie Marks and what they would look like, Wish and Discord were walking right behind them keeping an eye on them.
Discord had began to notice Wish smiling, something was amiss, aside from the obvious fact that he now knew about the drawing. "What's with the smile?" He asked him.
Wish looked at the spirit of chaos who looks confused. "What do you mean?"
"That smile. I know that smile anywhere, and made that whenever I’m planning a chaotic scenario."
Wish just sighs and decides to tell him, but he whispers, “I think I’m in love with-“
“Oh, I already know that,” Discord whispers back, earning a shock expression on his new friend’s face, “I just want to know what’s going on in that brain of yours that’s causing you to smile.”
Wish looked at the draconequus a little conflicted at first, should he really tell him why? Perhaps since he’s now reformed, he could be trusted, but then again, given he’s more mischievous than chaotic he could easily tell Twilight at the drop of a hat. “Can you promise me something Discord?” He asked him, making the spirit of chaos raise a brow, “I mean like, Pinkie Promise me it.”
“Ooh, that secretive, eh?” He asked now wiggling his brow.
“Y-You see… well, I don’t know if Celestia told you, but-“
“She’s already informed me,” Discord interrupted him and then became reassuring, “Don’t worry, that secret stays between us and the Princesses.”
Wish sighs in relief and continues, “Well, you see, not only I’m in love with Twilight, but I also want tot help her with a career pat that she wanted to have. I imagined many different scenarios of what she wanted to do, but I honestly don’t know what she would really want.”
“Like what?”
“Being a teacher for a school, a messenger for Celestia, an author for spell books, honestly the possibilities for her is endless.” Wish explained, his smile then falters to a mid frown, “From what I’ve seen her as a alicorn, she’s been pushing her limits of what she could do and I’m feeling like it’s restricting her of her true potential. I want to help her guide down a path and live a life that she wants.”
Discord hummed a little as he gave him an expression that would be an opposite of what Wish had hoped. “Must you remember that Celestia needs a successor in order for Equestria to continue to live in peace and harmony.”
“That’s the thing Discord,” the teal pony explains to him, “Centuries from now, the magic of friendship will be gone. Twilight, the Princesses, the Elements, neither of them won’t be around to do anything about it.” He hung his head in sadness as he continues, “If that is indeed the future of Equestria, then there’s no telling what would happen if I got involved. I know don’t want to interfere my friends lives too much, but I’m telling you now, she can’t be a princess.”
Discord then countered his friend’s question, “Well, if not Twilight, then who should?”
“I could name a few,” he began to list off, “Luna for one, she’s been away for thousands of years, and she still looks younger than she was years ago, and to have her take her sisters place, it would make sense.”
“True, but she must also take responsibility for moving not only the moon, but also the sun,” Discord counters again, “And besides, her duty is to watch over the dreams of other ponies.”
Damn, he has a good point, Wish thought to himself, but then continues on, “There’s also Sunset Shimmer, Celestia’s first choice of being her successor. She’s has the capabilities handling such power. Plus, she even took on a dark alter ego of Twilight, so why not her? She has every good intention of protecting Equestria.”
“Lest you forget that she too used dark magic when Twilight encountered her?”
Shit! “Then… th-then… uh…” he began to stumble, he knows that there are others that could fill in as the next princess of Equestria, he knows that there is, he-
“Wishing Star,” Discord placed his talon on his friend’s shoulder and says to him, “I know you wanted what’s truly the best for her, but if this is what Celestia plans for Twilight, then that’s really is her final say in all of this. It’s not your decision to control everypony’s fate.”
“What?!” He seemed surprised by what the draconequus said to him, “Control everyone’s fates?! That isn’t what I want!”
“But it is what you are doing right now.”
Wish wanted to retort, but looking back at what happened over the past seven days since joining the girls, he has been showing somewhat of control over them, and not only Discord knew, but Wish had the feeling Rainbow Dash and Applejack had the feeling something was going on. Was he really wrong in wanting to help change Equestria for the better and to help the other ponies to the right paths?
Discord then looks ahead after he heard Scootaloo shout, “Hey! I think we found it!” They hurried over to what seemed like a ruins of a castle of the royal pony sisters. It seemed to have been in ruins for over a thousand years, though most of it seemed to be intact. “Come on, let’s go!” Scootaloo exclaims.
“Hold on you three.” Wish tells them cautiously, making them stop dead in their tracks. He then tells them, “Wait here. I want to check something.” He heads to the front of the gate and pushes it open as the hinges creaked. Peaking around the door, making sure there weren’t any traps or tripwires that could easily be triggered, there wasn’t seem to be any as far as he could see. Aside from that, it was quite dark even if sunlight beams shined through the windows.
He turns around and motions his head toward the group to follow him. They do so and they entered the castle. “I-It seems pretty dark.” Applebloom shudders.
“Sure w-“ he stops himself again from using his power’s word, “Ugh, I really got to stop doing that.” He then looks at Discord and asks, “Think you can give us a torch or a lantern?” He then began to materialize a pair flashlight and gave one each to the crusaders and then to Wish. “Thanks.” He clicks it on and he could see that some of the ruined halls of the castle.
Their flashlights shining brightly, they all pointed at the door in front of them. Walking carefully as to make sure they don’t trip over anything, they headed towards the door… all but one who got sidetracked. Scootaloo stops at a suit of armor and shined at it’s helmet for it seemed strange to her. And then…
… … ”CAW!”
“AH!” The gamboge pegasus yelped as a crow left through the eyehole of helmet, causing it to tip over and fell onto the frightened filly’s head, clogging itself on her. “IT’S GOT ME!” She cries, “GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!”
The group turned around in shock to see Scootaloo trying to pry the helmet off. Discord and the other crusaders were trying their best to not laugh at this situation, while Wish just rolled his eyes and chuckled, “Hold on Scoots, I got ya.” He tells her calmly and she has her to hold still and with a couple of twists and a jerk, it finally got off her.
“Thanks.” She says to him, her gaze then turned to her fellow suppressed laughing Crusaders and gave her variation of ‘The Stare,’ and says, “Not. Another. Word.”
“Sorry Scoots.” Applebloom said with a little giggle escaping her lips.
“Well, let it serves as a reminder to stay with the group,” Wish tells the little Pegasus, he then responds to all three of them, “That goes for you two as well, okay?” They nodded, with giving them a nod back as he opens the door that leads to another hallway, not as long as the first hallway they went through, but at the end of the hall there seemed to be a statue of the two sisters. “Gosh…” he says outloud as he looks at the statue, “To think that a thousand years ago, this was once Princess Celestia and Luna’s home, now to be reduced to a forgotten monument to time.”
Discord looked at the statue solemnly and sighs, “If it weren’t for my chaotic behavior.” He looked around the abandoned castle. Thousand years ago, he battled against Princess Celestia and Luna, when he faced a losing battle, he was responsible for the creation the Everfree Forest, leaving their home a wreck as the ruins they stand in today.
Wish looked at the draconequus’ regret and crestfallen look on his face. “We might not be able to change what happened in the past,” he tells him placing his hoof on him, “But, there’s hope for a better future. We’ll scavenge somethings around here and bring back to Celestia and Luna as gifts.”
“Gifts?” Discord asked with a raised brow, of which the teal stallion nods. He never had thought about such a idea. Giving a gift to Princess Celestia of all ponies? A present from him? The spirit of chaos?
The crusaders are having a little exploration of their own as they went to see another door, though this was cracked open. “Hey Mr. Star!” Sweetie Belle calls with a squeak of her voice, “This door is open!”
This got the males’ attention and went to the cracked open door, and it could mean somepony had forgotten to close the door when they left the castle, or someone or something is in here with them. “Girls,” he warns them, “Get behind me.” They do so as he cautiously opens the door and discovers that this room is a library, seeing rows and rows of books upon each shelf, some seemed familiar with shape and color, others seemed older. “Heh, Twilight would spend hours in this room.” He says to himself outloud.
The crusaders could sense admiration for the lilac unicorn mare, hinting that there’s something going on between the two of them. Of course, Scootaloo gags quietly at the idea of lovey dovey mushy stuff. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked at each other and then looked confused.
Wish looked around the library and saw one of the books was pushed in further than the other books on the shelves. “Hey Discord.” He tells the draconequus investigating the book, “This looks a little suspicious. Why is this book pushed all the way back?” Discord made an ‘I don’t know,’ noise with a shrug. The teal stallion the tries to grab the book, but it didn’t move off the shelf, but it tipped over and made a click. He was confused, he now know that it’s a switch and it would open a secret door, but nothing happened… at least at his side.
As the Crusaders looked at one of the shelves, Sweetie Belle was about to grabbed a yellow book, but then it suddenly made a quiet ‘Shwomph!’ and she was shocked at first, then it turned to confusion. “Huh?” She asked herself, she then tries to reach for the yellow book again, but it then went ‘Shwomph!’ again and it ended up at a different place on the bookshelf. “What the hay?” She asked herself again.
“Honestly, what’s the point of having a fake book switch if it doesn’t open anything?” Wish asked himself as he pushes it back and pulls it forward.
“Wish!” Sweetie Belle complains.
He looked at the pouting unicorn and went to her and asks, “What’s wrong Sweetie Belle?”
“This stupid book keeps moving.” She tells him pointing at the yellow book. He looked at her confused and grabs the book no problem, examines it. “Huh?!” She asked as her confuzzled expression shows, looking back and forth at the book and the shelf, stuttering.
“You eyes must be playing tricks on you Sweetie Belle.” Wish says to her.
Sweetie retorts, “No! I saw the book move!”
He puts the book back as he sighs, “Okay, what were you doing? Trying to grab it?” He asks her, Sweetie Belle nods, “Okay, so if I try and grab it again, it’ll stay in place. Watch.” He does so, then the book went ‘Shwomph!’ making him looked surprised as well. “That’s odd,” he says curiously, “I could’ve sworn it-“
“See!? I told you it moves!”
“I can see that Sweetie Belle.” He says as he looks at the book curiously, then he looks at Discord who was fiddle with the book switch he was investigating earlier… then it clicked. “Discord! Move that book again!” The draconequus looks confused, but he does so, moving the blue book back and the yellow book from where Wish and Sweetie Belle moved. It’s then he reached an amazing conclusion, “This is a puzzle! Girls! Discord! Look for any moving books!”
The other two Crusaders were a little confused at first, but slowly, they realized what they needed to do and started to assist them. They also discovered that only the blue, yellow, and pink books were the only ones that were switches. “Ah think that’s all of them!” Applebloom exclaims, looking at the book switch, “But what are we suppose’ to do now?”
He looks around with the seven exposed switches and explains, “Well, I know it’s a puzzle, so this has got to be a combination puzzle. There has to be some sort of note that either the Princesses or one of the subjects left behind when the castle was left to ruin.” He looks around the library, the floor was now littered with books.
“Perhaps there’s a book around here that could possibly leave behind a clue?” Scootaloo asks as she looks one of the books, opening it up.
Wish looks at the switches, there doesn’t seem to be attracting him as a sign. He sighs and was about to call it quits as he leans again a shelf with a sudden triggering noise and began to fall backwards with a shout as he slid down to a slope secret passage way.
The fillies and draconequus took notice and hurried to the opened path. “Wish!” The fillies shout in worried unison, as Sweetie finishes the question, “Are you okay!?”
As Wish got up, he shook his head from the sudden drop and swept off some of the dust off of his mane. He looks back at the slide and shouts, “Hey! I think I found it!”
The draconequus shook his head as he then asks from the entrance, “What do you see down there?”
The teal earth pony squints as he looks around the hallway that is before him, torches’ flames on the walls partially shows him a red velvet, torn carpet. “It must be some kind of entrance to something!” He shouts from the bottom of the slide, looking back at the hall he then continues, “There’s some light at the the end of the hall and-” he stops as the light seems to move ever closer to him, turning into a crimson glow. Wish could sense a familiar feeling occurring that sent a shiver down his spine.
A canine-like growl echoes the hall as a figure appears, a tall, blue and white anthropomorphic dog with a black sleeveless vest, and a worn out light gray scarf around his neck. He looked down at him with crimson red eyes, snarling at the earth pony with his canines. Behind the dog is a black cloaked figure, the sound of a chain rattling could be heard.
“You shouldn’t have come here.” The dog growls.
“Oh god,” Wish whimpers, he turns around and shouts at the bottom of the slide, trying to climb back up, “GUYS! TURN BACK! RUN!!!” He was then grabbed by the leg and was tossed away against the wall, letting out a yelp in pain.
The dog slowly walked up to him, unsheathing what seems like a katana blade. “You are an intruder to this sacred place of Devine Light.” The dog tells the earth pony with a snarl, “Your hidden shadow must be eradicated.”
Hidden shadow?! Wish thought to himself in a panic, What in the heck is he talking about?! He didn’t had the time to figure it out as he briefly missed a swing from the dog’s blade. Swipe, after swipe of the katana, Wish rushed out of the way as he was suddenly tackled and pinned up to a wall by a talon. It almost seems familiar to Captain Celaeno’s parrot talons.
“This is what The Great Star prophesized?” The cloaked figure asked out loud as he lowered his hood to unveil a male parrot’s face, almost like Celaeno’s, but more male, and his eyes looking like Capper’s eyes, but replaced with a golden yellow color. He chuckles softly as he then gave the earth pony a scowl, "You can't really be the one. The Great Star foretold that a certain pony from Canterlot is destined to be Equestria's savior."
"Y-you're talking about Twilight... R-right?" Wish asked nervously looking at the entrance, then back at the tall bird.
The blue and white dog spoke with venom in his voice, "What are we standing here just hearing him cower? Let us end this abomination now."
"Be patient Bluu," The bird tells him, "She will pass the judgement on this young trespasser, and then, when can execute him."
Wish couldn’t believe what he was hearing. "E-exacuted?!" He asked them, "No no no no! You got it all wrong! I wasn't trespassing! I came here looking for a place!"
"By entering this place that is sacred," Bluu growls at him, "You are in fact trespassing! Now you will face the judgment and the consequences of your actions."
Wish was looking around frantically, he knew that the Crusaders and Discord were up back in the library, and he’s unsure if they could even get to him in time.
Just suddenly, before Bluu could say more, the dog got thwacked behind his head with something metal, knocking him out.
The bird and earth pony stallion looked at the small unicorn filly holding a frying pan as she shouts, "That's for ponynapping my sister!"
"Sweetie Belle!" Wish cries out, "Run!" He shoves the bird away from him using his hind legs with the other two Crusaders and Discord behind them. As they continued running, the tall white bird caught up to them, stopping them in their tracks
"You think you can outrun the light?!" The tall bird asked them, then he looks at the draconequus in surprise, then a smirk formed on his beak and says, "Well well, so nice of you join us to face the Lady's judgement once again, Dichónoia." The ponies were really confused as they look at Discord as to why he was called that, but the Bird wasn't done, "Having yourself aligned with these ponies and a human before you."
Now the Crusaders looked at the earth pony, as Wish looked at him in shock. "H-How did you-?"
"Oh my dear boy," the bird says with an introductory tone, "I am Devine Light, I know from the sun, moon, and stars themselves. Now," his wings unfurled, revealing rows of feather-like daggers and began to exclaim, "You will face your judgment!"
