Hello, everypony! So glad I was able to get this chapter up! I hope you like it! I decided to expand on their childhoods a little more this chapter than the last.
Singing Writer
Guitar and I were traveling for about a week when, in the dead of night, we came across a little village with a big castle on one end. We decided to stop and rest our hooves, as we had hardly been sleeping throughout the week in fear that Serene might find us and make our lives worse. Suddenly, the moon glowed slightly brighter, and the figure of an Alicorn flew down towards us. I recognized her from the nightmares that she stopped: Princess Luna.
Princess Luna stopped in front of us and asked, "Why do you not rest in the night, my ponies? Nighttime is a time for rest and renewal, not for fearful activity."
Guitar and I bowed, and I answered, "We couldn't take what our mother is doing to us anymore. If we let it continue, our lives could be in danger. We ran away, traveling under cover of darkness to hide ourselves from her."
Luna smiled and nodded in understanding, saying, "Well, how about I help you two to sleep? You will need your rest for your big day tomorrow."
"Why is it a big day tomorrow, Princess Luna?" Guitar asked.
"You have arrived in Ponyville, the home to the Princess of Friendship and her friends," Luna answered. "Coming from personal experience, I know that they will be able to help you two hide from your mother, and maybe you will finally have the friends that you two always wished for. They can help you in ways that I cannot even begin to say. Now go to sleep and renew yourselves, my little ponies."
We felt a lull come over us, and Guitar and I both lay down under a nearby tree and fell asleep.
... TIME SKIP ...
When we woke up the next morning, Celestia's sun was rising just above the horizon. Guitar and I hitched each other to the wagon and walked into town, where the ponies were waking up and starting their days. We decided, with Princess Luna's advice, that we would go first to the castle on the other side of town.
On our way there, a pink pony with darker pink hair and cyan eyes hopped in front of us, saying, "Hey there! I'm Pinkie Pie, and welcome to Ponyville! What brings you here? Are you here to see Twilight?" She spoke incredibly fast, but we were able to keep up with her.
"Hello. I'm Singing Writer, and this is my twin sister, Guitar Riff. We actually did come to see Princess Twilight. We were hoping that she could help us," I explained to Pinkie, after a moment to get up the courage to talk to the stranger pony.
She nodded and said, "I can help you out! I'm one of Twilight's besties! Follow me!"
We followed the overly-energetic pink pony to the castle, and I noticed all the loving families that we passed by on our way to the castle. It seemed so much different from the attitudes in the village where Guitar and I grew up, where adults hated kids and abused them for all it was worth. We always wondered but never knew about the happy celebrations of other ponies in Equestria. All we knew was sorrow and pain. The adults constantly lied to us through their teeth, proved themselves traitors, caused sorrow where joy would usually be warranted, were selfish, were far from kind, and those who were unicorns used their magic in horrendous ways against us and their neighbors. To us, this was all a very happy but foreign sight for us.
When we got to the castle, Pinkie opened the door and called out, "Twilight! You have visitors!"
A voice that rang like bells called back, "I'm in the library! Bring them here!"
We followed Pinkie, still pulling our wagon, down the halls of the beautiful crystalline castle, and marveled at the work the ponies of this village must have put in to make this castle so beautiful.
Pinkie asked us, "You like the castle? It wasn't made by pony hooves! It was made by magic from the Tree of Harmony, but I'm sure that Twilight can help you understand that concept better than me!"
"Harmony?" Guitar asked, as neither she nor I had ever heard of such a concept.
Our village was constantly battered by snowstorms, and as we had no pegasi who stayed for long, we blamed the unicorns. They blamed us because the constant snow would destroy most of our crops. It was a sight to see as we went through what parts of Equestria we saw on the run when we saw that it wasn't the same way in other places. In any case, there was no such thing as harmony in our village, which was dubbed by the grownups as "The Village of Ungrateful Fillies", rather unfairly in my opinion.
"You know, when everypony's happy and joyful and friendly and..." she stopped dead in her tracks and turned to face us in the middle of the hall. "You don't know anything about what I'm saying, do you?"
"Not really, Pinkie. I'm sorry," I apologized to the lovable pink pony, with whom I was already starting to become warmed up to because of her warm welcome and personality, which was nothing like the ponies I knew back home. "Our home village was never happy, or joyful, or the least bit friendly. I've heard of those things, and I might know a little about some of them, but other than that I've got nothing."
Pinkie's puffy hair even seemed to droop as she said, "Oh, I didn't know that. I'm sorry, guys."
"It's okay, Pinkie," I reassured her, putting my hoof on her shoulder. "We didn't tell you, so you wouldn't know."
Pinkie perked up a little, saying, "Thanks, Singing."
Guitar offered Pinkie a hug, and the pink pony gladly accepted it. Pinkie then continued leading us to a gigantic library where, at a table in the middle, was a purple Alicorn with a dark purple mane and tail with two lighter stripes in it and a light purple unicorn with a dark purple mane and tale with two different shades of green stripes in them. The purple Alicorn turned around and smiled at us as we walked in.
"Welcome, visitors!" she greeted kindly. "My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, and this is my student, Starlight Glimmer."
The other pony, Starlight, turned around and said, "It's nice to meet you two. Who are you?"
"My name is Singing Writer, and this is my twin sister, Guitar Riff," I replied. "We're here because Princess Luna said you could help us with our dilemma."
"A dilemma? What kind of dilemma?" the princess asked. "Is it a friendship problem? I specialize in those!"
"Not exactly," Pinkie replied just as I opened my mouth. "They have never even heard about harmony! HARMONY!"
Needless to say, the pink pony just jittered in disbelief as I cleared my throat to explain, "In our village, every adult abuses the fillies, especially their own children. There is no such thing as honesty or loyalty, not to mention happiness and joy. My sister and I couldn't take it anymore, so we packed our homemade instruments and ran away."
"Does your village happen to have lots of snow and ice?" Twilight asked us with all seriousness on her face.
"Actually, yes. I was a little surprised that it isn't like that in the rest of Equestria," Guitar replied.
"As was I, sister," I reminded her. "It was lovely to know that the sun shone for longer than just a few days at a time here, and that it isn't always cold here."
"I think I know what was happening to your village," Twilight said. "Have you ever heard the story of Hearth's Warming Eve?"
"No, we haven't," Guitar replied, curious. "Does it involve burning fillies?"
She and I both shivered at an early memory of our mother doing that to us in so many places I cannot recount them all here without missing a place or two due to lack of knowledge of that area's name.
"No, it doesn't," the Princess of Friendship (again, a concept almost completely foreign to us). "It's about how the different tribes of Equestria came together in friendship to defeat the Windigos."
"What are Windigos?" I asked.
"Creatures that fed off of hatred and distrust that freeze everypony around them to match the coldness of their hearts," Twilight explained.
"What's the story?" Guitar asked eagerly.
It was the first time since we had gotten our Cutie Marks that I had heard her say anything in that tone of voice, and it made me feel a strange warm fuzzy thing in my heart. I have learned since then that that feeling was of love and happiness.
"Once, long long ago, three separate tribes lived in a place not too far from Equestria: the Pegasi, Unicorns, and Earth Ponies. The Earth Ponies farmed the land, the Pegasi controlled the clouds, and the Unicorns raised the sun and moon. Of course, this was before the reign of Princesses Celestia and Luna, who now do the raising and lowering of the sun and moon. Anyways, the three tribes always fought and were cruel to each other, and their land became ravaged by snowstorms. The three tribes then went in search of a new home. They found what is modern-day Equestria, but then it was a land of opportunity. Unfortunately, they all found it at once, and they fought over who got to keep it. The storms came again, but much faster this time. The tribes were forced to take shelter in a nearby cave. Even then, their hatred got the better of most of them. Many became frozen solid into a block of ice. A few Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies were left. Then a unicorn who had been Starswirl the Bearded's student recognized the creatures that brought the snow and ice to wherever they went: Windigos. She was able to tell the remaining ponies of the tribes, and they all found ways to become friends. They told jokes and stories, and their songs became the Hearth's Warming carols that we sing today. The growing love between these ponies began to drive away the Windigos, and it slowly unfroze everypony else, too. When everypony realized what was happening, they all joined in, and eventually the Windigos were driven away. After they were freed from the cave, they came together and founded a new land called Equestria. Now every year on that special day and the night before we celebrate that momentous occasion with songs, decorations, and lovely traditions to keep the Windigos from ever returning," Twilight said, using her magic (and Starlight assisting) to visualize the story for us.
Guitar and I were amazed at this story that we had never heard of before in our lives. All our lives we had heard of awful ponies like Nightmare Moon, King Sombra, and Dischord who would come for us at night and destroy whatever hope we ever had. Never had we heard of a story that encouraged happiness and hope.
"That's a wonderful story," I told Twilight.
"I thought everypony knew that story," Starlight remarked with a worried tone to her voice, "although Pinkie did say that they have never heard of harmony before either, so I guess that's a moot point."
"Thank you for remembering the feelings of others, Starlight," Twilight told her student. She then turned to us and asked, "What kinds of stories did you ponies hear as young fillies?"
"I don't think you want to know, Princess," I said in embarrassment and shame.
Guitar elbowed my leg and said, "We might as well tell her. The only other pony outside our village who knows about it is Princess Luna."
"Princess Luna knows about this?" Twilight asked. "What's so bad about it?"
"They're not stories of hope and happiness like yours was," I explained. "They're about how Nightmare Moon will one day return and devour every filly in sight, or how King Sombra will return and destroy or enslave us all, or how Dischord will return and make our lives miserable."
"Now I find that very insulting, seeing as I'm reformed now," a draconoquus said as he slithered out of literally nowhere.
"It-it-it-it-it-it-it-it's DISCHORD! HE'S GOING TO RUIN OUR LIVES! RUN!" I screamed as I tried to run out of the library, but got nowhere as I was still strapped to the wagon.
Guitar only stood in shocked fear, remembering the stories Serene told us.
Dischord clucked his tongue at us and said, "Again, insulting, but I suppose I have to cut a little slack. You two do seem to be out of the loop. Twilight can vouch for me; I'm no harm to you!"
Twilight gave a pointed look to Dischord (probably for the uninvited entrance) before reassuring us, "It's okay. He really is reformed. He poses no more harm to Equestria. He's even my friend!"
Dischord gave a satisfied smile and nod before waving goodbye and disappearing into nowhere again.
"So there's one less story to worry about," Guitar told me with a shaky voice and smile.
Sorry for the lack of Guitar Riff's POV in this chapter, but I wanted you guys to get to know a little more about our characters while getting our story rolling.
Please review!