Elise stared around her library, willing the book she was looking for to fly off of the shelve into her hand. She tousled her hair so black it looked purple and caught a hold of a pink strand, twisting it in her nimble fingers. She glanced around one last time before calling her assistant and friend, Spike into the room. He sauntered in, hands in pockets, his purple and green sweatshirt jumping around his baggy dark blue jeans.
"Yeah, Elise?" Spike responded. He pulled his custom Beats off of one his ears, pulling his iPod out of his pocket to pause the music. He glanced out the window to try catch a glimpse of Aria, his secret, or so he thought, crush. Elise adjusted her violet shirtsleeves and tugged at the hem.
"Spike, take a letter. Dear Princess Tia, this week I learned an important lesson in friendship. Even if your friends promise to do something, it does not mean that you can bother them about it everyday. Sometimes, they have a problem saying no. Your faithful student, Elise." Elise rambled on as Spike was scribbling furiously on a scrap piece of paper. She was going to ask him to mail it when he could when the door flew open, revealing Diana, one of the loudest, most annoying people of all time. She was also one of Elise's best friends. Diana's mouth moved at a million miles per minute, streaming babble and nonsense at anyone and everyone she met.
"Oh, hey Elise, hey Spike. Guess what? Today is Gummy's second birthday! And I am having a party this afternoon, I really want you to be there so he can have a SUPER good birthday today!" Diana gushed at her friends. She bounced up and down, her curly pink bouncing in time with her jumps. She had on a pink t-shirt with two blue balloons and one yellow one forming a triangle, matching her tattoo on her wrist. Her pale pink gym shorts went well with her white knee socks with two stripes of blue and yellow at the top, going into her vibrant high tops that were once white, but had been colored and decorated to look like a party. Elise frowned at her own outfit of her violet button down shirt, and dark jeans that gave way to sensible black Vans.
"Of course we'll be there, Pinks." Elise said, using the nickname for her rosy friend that was based on her clothing choice earning her a big smile that lit up her friend's face. She bounced out of the room, her little alligator pet peeking out from her hair.
Elise counted on her fingers the number of friends she had seen that day. Two, not counting Spike. So, where were the other three? Jackie was probably at her family's apple orchard picking apples with her older brother, Mac, who everyone called Big Mac, purely for his size alone. Perhaps little Bloom was helping Granny. Lute was probably with her animals, a quiet opposite to her loud, eccentric parents, resulting in her odd name. Ah, there's four out of five, but what about... CRASH! Oh, there she is, thought Elise, remembering her last friend, Dashie, as she was dubbed by Diana for her speed, was none other than Rain Bowdash, her parents being slightly eccentric, as Lute's were. Rain, for she was born on a rainy day and Bowdash for her mother's violin skills, and her father's agility. She heard the familiar flow of curses as Dashie flew by in a hurry to collect her dumbbells that had fallen. Whether training for soccer, swimming, running, lacrosse, anything she could grasp the concept of, Dashie was always working out. Elise stepped out of her library home into the bright sunshine of the little town where she had lived for the past year. Ponyville to some, Appletown to others. Their little home didn't have a set name, but was recognized by many. Dashie pushed her pilot glasses up on her head, and bent over to pick up her weights. She wearing a blue tank top with athletic shorts and sneakers for working out in.
"#%& it!" Dashie almost yelled. Her tattoo of a white cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt was showing on her shoulder because of her tank top. Elise grinned as she wandered over to Aria's boutique to visit. She rubbed her wrist where her own tattoo was hidden by the long sleeves of the shirt, a single, pink six pointed narrow star, surrounded by little white sparkles. She and her six friends had gone out and gotten them one night, to the prompting of Dash, Jackie, and Pinks. Lute was shocked at the idea, and hid behind a curtain of her hair before agreeing quietly. Aria squealed in delight as her turn came up to get the three blue gems on her lower back, with her name written in a curly font underneath. Elise was second to last. Lute finally got her three little pink butterflies. She was biting her lip the whole time.
Aria opened the door saying, "Good morning, welcome to- Oh, Elise! How are you, darling?" She asked in her lilting, light British accent. She was always a fahionista. Her blue-violet hair was just the trend. She was wearing a simple white dress, but she had made it look amazing. She had paired it with things Elise had no names for.
"Hi, Aria. Any new orders?" Elise inquired friendly. They chatted for a little when Aria suddenly gasped.
"Oh, my, where are my manners? Won't you come in?" Aria quickly said, wringing her hands as she gestured for Elise to enter. Elise politely shook her head no, explaining that she was going to go help Jackie and Big Mac with carting the apples back to the storage cellar. She bade her friend farewell, and was well on her way when a large white carriage pulled up next to her as she was on the country road, and a dark shape pulled her in, then sped off. Elise widened her eyes at the sight that lay before her. She saw her other five friends in the carriage with her, sitting stone-like. She couldn't speak, for a pale hand was covering her mouth. A voice she had heard on one holiday questioned her.
"ART THOU READY FOR WHAT WE ARE ABOUT TO TELL THOU?" Luna asked in the Royal Canterlot Voice. Lute flinched at the sudden noise and spoke up quietly.
"Um, Princess, if you don't mind, uh, I think you should lower your voice... I mean, if you want to... Please?"
"Ah, yes. We apologize, Lute. Our control had slipped away from us. We shall endeavor to keep our voice at a volume matching yours."
Princess Luna was the polar opposite of her older sister, Princess Tia. She had flowing raven locks, dark eyes that reflected everything with a cold inner fire, and had a moon shaped tattoo on her ankle, but on first glance nobody could tell. It was too small. Her sister was blond, with playful blue eyes, and a small yellow-orange sun tattoo, hidden by her long hair on the back of her neck. Elise had studied under Princess Tia, after being hand-picked from at least a hundred other students, to become the Keeper of The Library Of Equestria. The elder princess had banished her younger sister for a while, after turning into an evil force that nobody could control.
"Well, Princess, I- uh- I think I am quite ready to hear what you had to say now." Elise stammered as she was stared at with those cold, calculating eyes. The princess had removed her hand from Elise's mouth, and folded it in her lap with her other one. She sniffed with a royal air, as she glared down her nose at the significantly smaller girl, of only about 18 as were her friends, except Lute, who was 19. Luna sighed and rolled her eyes as she flopped her hands down into her lap in a manner most unbecoming for a princess.
"I suppose I should tell you. It all started back before you little ones were even thought of. Back when I was only but a few hundred years old, hardly even a teenager, for one of my standing." Luna reminded them with an indifferent air that she was one of the Immortals, almost a goddess. Because in Equestria, nothing is as it seems.