It was a bright, sunny day in Ponyville. The birds were chirping; the squirrels were happily foraging for food; all the other ponies were going about their day as usual. Spike was even up and actually cleaning the library.
Twilight Sparkle woke up from a good night's rest. She had been working very hard on some new spells lately, and she was exhausted. She stretched and yawned, "Morning, Spike." She turned towards Spike's bed, but he wasn't there. "Spike?" she called, concerned.
"Down here, Twilight!" Spike responded.
She jumped out of bed and trotted over to the edge of the floor and looked down to see Spike with a broom with his hand. "Spike are you…sweeping?"
"Yup," he responded cheerfully.
Twilight looked puzzled. She bit her arm. "Ouch!"
"What'd you do that for, Twilight?" Spike asked baffled.
"Making sure I'm awake. Are you really cleaning right now?"
Spike laughed. "Yes, Twilight. Believe it or not, I can do house chores and be your assistant, too," he stated proudly.
Twilight giggled. "Alright, Spike."
"That and since you've been working so hard on your spells lately, I thought I'd give you a break and clean up a bit."
"Aww, Spike. That is so sweet of you."
"Ah it's nothing, Twilight. You deserve it."
"Well thank you. Now that I think about it, I haven't really taken a break from learning these new spells. Maybe I should take a day off." Then she trotted down the steps and got ready for that day.
She was brushing her mane when she had a thought. "Hmm…what should I do on my day off, though? All I ever do is study and practice my spells."
Spike thought about it, too. "Hmm…well you could always go to the lake. Don't you have a new book you've been wanting to read?"
"O that's right, Spike!" she exclaimed as she dashed over to the bookshelf. "Princess Celestia gave me a rare copy of a collection of Star Swirled the Bearded's journal entries. Now I can see what he was thinking about when coming up with new spells!"
"Uh, Twilight…isn't the point of your day off to get away from studying and stuff?"
Twilight giggled. "O Spike. This will be relaxing; I promise. I'm looking more at his life than I am his spells," she said, grabbing her saddle bag and placing the book inside.
"Well ok. If you say so. I'm gonna get back to sweeping. You have fun at the lake."
"Thank you so much again, Spike," she said as she hugged him. "You're the best assistant a pony could ask for."
"Yea I know," Spike said playfully. And with that Twilight trotted out of the library, anxious to get to the lake to read her book. "O my gosh! O my gosh! O my gosh!" she exclaimed happily. "I wonder how he came up with so many spells. I wonder where he drew his inspiration from. I wonder if he had a teacher like I do. O my gosh! I'm so excited to read this book!"
Twilight Sparkle was halfway to the lake now. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the other pony trotting her way. They ended up bumping heads.
"Ouch!" Twilight exclaimed rubbing her forehead. Then she looked up and saw another pony rubbing her forehead. She was a green unicorc with a white mane, tail, and hooves, and her coat was also speckled white; she also wore a thin, slate-colored necklace with a clear, hexagon shaped gem in the center. She also noticed that it was a pony that she had never seen before. Twilight felt even more embarrassed after having that realization. "O my gosh! I am so sorry! I should've paid more attention to where I was going. I promise I'm not always this careless!"
The other pony chuckled, "Aw it's alright, hun. It was an accident. My name's Abelinda." She shrugged. "I'm kinda new to Equestria."
"Abelinda is a beautiful name. My name's Twilight Sparkle."
"That's a nice name, too. But, aren't you a princess? Or are not all alicorns princesses?"
"O yea," Twilight blushed. "I am; I just don't really announce it or anything."
"Why not?! Being a princess has got to be the coolest thing ever! *sigh* I wish I was one."
"Well I guess it is kinda cool. I'm just not one to really announce things."
"Ah I see. So where were you headed, Your Highness?" she said with a smile as she bowed before Twilight.
Twilight blushed harder and nudged her to try to get her to stop bowing. "No, please. Call me Twilight. And I was on my way to the lake to read a book- Wait a minute, you said you were new here?"
Abelinda lifted her head. "Yea I am."
"Are you here by yourself?"
"Yea I am…" Abelinda said sadly, rubbing her leg with her hoof. "I don't have any friends or anything. I travel by myself."
Twilight pitied her, then had an idea. "Well we certainly can't have that. Let me introduce you to my friends."
"O I wouldn't want to take you away from your reading or anything," the unicorn said, looking at Twilight sheepishly.
"O it's not a problem at all. Every pony needs friends. And you've made your first one here." Twilight extended her hoof.
Abelinda stood up with a puzzled look on her face. "Why are you doing that?"
Twilight was surprised to know that she didn't know what a hoof shake was, but tried not to show it. "O…well, it's called a hoof shake. Here; hold your hoof out like me."
Abelinda did so cautiously. Twilight then shook her hoof. "Like this. That's all there is to it."
Abelinda chuckled embarrassed. "Wow. I didn't know it was that simple…"
"O it's fine. Now I have to introduce you to my friends," Twilight said as she trotted off happily. Abelinda turned her head to follow Twilight, then turned her head in the direction of Canterlot, then turned and trotted after Twilight, her new friend.
