Prologue

"Ah, we're almost there," the pegasus sighed in relief to his companion, barely managing to put one hoof in front of the other.

The aged, grey coated unicorn nodded happily, the smile on his face barely visible beneath the bushy, two-pronged mustache. In lieu of a verbal response, the unicorn's horn glowed, sparks shooting out of it as a deep, magically altered voice vibrated in the younger pony's brain.

On a familiar path near a rather well-known town, a quite unusual pony sighed. With a coat as white as the snow that capped the nearby mountains and dull brown hair filled with twigs and other detritus from his travels, this particular pony was not the image that would come to mind when the word 'adventurer' was uttered. With a fully grown, if somewhat small, lithe body and finely feathered folded wings, there was no doubt that this pegasus was something altogether strange. But strangest of all was the hindquarters, for they were blatantly blank, absent of any cutie mark, though he tried his best to hide the affliction with saddlebags. In fact-

"Professor, would you please stop doing that? I've got enough of a headache already," Novell muttered around a yawn as he rubbed his baggy eyes. Having his brain rattled around inside his skull wasn't the most comfortable thing under normal circumstances, let alone the one he found himself in now. The unicorn managed to look sheepish at that, coughing into one hoof as they continued on the trail.

They'd been traveling for a full night in order to reach Ponyville, not even breaking for food or rest. Thankfully the past week or so had toughened the young pegasus up. Otherwise I would have just fallen asleep on my hooves a long time ago, he thought dryly as he blinked his eyes against the sun peeking from behind the mountainous horizon.

A chill swept through him at the thought of those giant, winter-capped peaks, but he forced it down with a glance at the small village they were coming upon. An innocuous, white picket fence started along the side of the road, managing to elicit a smile from him even in his tired state. Or maybe because of that.

Seconds after his newfound peace of mind, the humming began again. Novell closed his eyes as his ears twitched to the tune he'd listened to far too much on this last leg of the journey. He knew what was coming next, but this time, he was going to put a cork in that old unicorn's mouth.

"Please. Stop. Humming," he grumbled irritably to the Professor, who responded to his allegation by glancing back askance.

"What was that, my boy?"

"The humming! Stop it!" It was growing louder now, setting his other ear to twitching with its annoying, tuneless melody. Novell glowered at the other pony as it increased in volume, nearing his breaking point.

"But I'm not-."

"Aaaaruugh!" the pegasus yelled wordlessly, unable to take it anymore. He exploded at the other pony, not even bothering to notice it was coming from in front of him rather than beside him. "Celestia save me from this blasted humming! Why can't you just be quiet for, like, ten minutes?" he all but begged, shaking his ragged mane in helpless agony as he squeezed his eyes shut to blot it out.

"Novell-," the Professor began, only for the pegasus to cut him off.

"Professor Se- oof!"

Unfortunately, that was the exact moment something small and travelling at high speeds decided to slam right into the middle of his chest. The breath whooshed out of his lungs as he fell backward, shrill voices screeching in his ear as dust kicked up around him. He opened his eyes, seeing nothing but a small, purple tail clouding most of his vision along with groans of pain from two other weights on his back.

"You know, Ah think we run int'a lot more ponies than we need to, Scootaloo," a tiny voice said in a cute southern drawl, rolling off of the pile and stumbling unsteadily around as stars orbited her head. There was an audible rattle as the filly shook her cherry colored mane, a bow that almost dwarfed her entire body rustling in the breeze.

Before he could even begin to clear his own constellations of confusion, another more prim voice responded, following her companion. "Ya, Scoots, do you even watch where you're going?"

The tail in his face twitched in what seemed like anger at that, followed by the orange pony slouched on his forehead hopping to the ground with a buzz of her tiny wings. "If ya wanna go fast, we can go fast. If ya wanna go safe, maybe you can pull the wagon next time, Applebloom!"

Once they were all safely together and no longer on top of the more adult pony, their helmeted heads shifted toward the pegasus only now getting to his hooves. Novell shook dust and twigs from his hair, not all from the tumble he had just taken. The forest he and the Professor had walked through hadn't been kind to him. Though he doesn't seem any worse for wear. He glared through narrowed eyes at his the hefty unicorn's perfect, untouched mane.

"Ahm real sorry 'bout that, sir!" the yellow filly started with a fearful glance, breaking him from his thoughts. "We didn't mean ta hitcha!"

"Maybe you didn't," the flamboyant one they called 'Scoots' replied instantly with a glare toward her friend. A second later, she seemed to realize what she had said and glanced at him while stammering out an apology. "Uh, I, uh, I mean, sorry."

"Please don't tell my big sister we hit anyone," the white pony replied, the bobs in her hair reminding Novell of his friends'. "We'll show you around town! We can be your tour guides to make up for hitting you!"

"Oh, I like that idea! Maybe that's how we'll find our cutie marks!"

"Tourin' guide?" the country filly responded quizzically with a tilt of her head. Novell half expected her to fall over from the weight of the ribbon. "That don't sound like much fu-."

"Be quiet, Applebloom! We've gotta try everything!"

"Hey, don't tell me to be quiet!"

"I can if I want," the small pegasus stuck her tongue out at the other.

"Girls, why can't we all just get alon-," Novell started as his headache grew exponentially worse with their arguing. Come to think of it, they remind me of a certain two other ponies.

"Cutie Mark Crusader Tour Guides, yay!" the bob-haired unicorn exclaimed suddenly, the other two joining in automatically as if they said it so much it was ingrained in their brains. He stifled his laughter as they finished their chant, the two arguing ponies glaring at the bashfully grinning filly.

"Ugh, fine!"

"Excuse me, can I please ask a question?" the adult pegasus smoothly inserted himself into the conversation. They looked at him expectantly, all lined up in a row and suddenly, eerily quiet. "Uh, do you know where I could find the, uhm, 'Carousal Boutique'? I've been asked to talk to three little ponies about cutie marks and the Pri-."

"CUTIE MARKS?" they all replied with their big eyes aglow. Before he could blink in astonishment, the three fillies bounced around like they were wearing springs, each talking over one another in a gaggle of girlish voices. The pegasus and unicorn leaned up against him with pleading eyes, causing Novell to shy away at the sudden squeaks and high pitched tones. "Omigoshomigoshomigoshomigosh! Are you going to tell us how to get our cutie marks? That's so super fantabulously awesome! !"

"Well, I was just sent to tell a sto-."

"How come ya don't have no cutie mark?" a voice said from behind Novell. He froze, suddenly aware that in the commotion, his saddlebags had been thrown off his hindquarters. A million excuses rippled through his mind, but all his efforts at catching one and throwing it out of his mouth were futile. He hadn't been planning to reveal that little fact to anyone in town just yet. Defeated, Novell sighed and sat down next to the fencepost, closing his eyes as he thought up a response. Everything was going wrong before he even got to the city proper.

Still, he had a job, on orders from the Princess herself to tell his story to these little younglings, even though he had no idea why she was asking him to do it. After all, who would want to hear about a pony with no special talent? He looked up into the confused eyes of the three young ponies and the concerned eyes of his one constant companion throughout these last few days of insanity. The support in his friend's eyes sparked a resolve in him, enough that he was able to finally get his thoughts into order.

"Well, there's a reason for that, my little ponies," Novell began sadly, "but first I gotta tell you how I got here. It's kind of a long story, but it's got all the things you young ponies love to hear about. All kinds of characters in it. Pegasi, unicorns, earth ponies, and even a few other creatures you wouldn't want anything to do with." They all sat down obediently, despite their earlier agitation. "This tale is full of adventure," he smiled at the memories, "danger," his voice grew stronger, falling into a familiar groove as he pitched the word to a low tone, "excitement and tragedy," now a duality of cheerfulness and melancholy, "magic" he said mysteriously, "and, most importantly …"

He could already see the effect his words had made on the little fillies, hanging off of his next word, steadily inching closer and closer to him as he opened his mouth to speak the last word of his little prologue.

"Friendship."

The Professor snorted at that with a roll of his eyes. "And you call me melodramatic."