"Hey, kids! What are you doing here, alone, in the middle of nowhere?"

Oh boy.

Noir glared at him. "We aren't alone."

He smiled back, despite Noir's glare. "Well, then, where are your parents?"

Noir kept looking straight forward. I did the same.

The stranger nodded, knowingly.

"You know, it could get quite dangerous after dark."

"Thank you for your concern." Noir retorted, gruff.

Okay, that was just plain rude. The stranger was just trying to be nice. I had a feeling he was genuinely concerned.

The stranger laughed a bit. "I bet your parents taught you a thing or two about talking to strangers, am I right?"

We both flinched, visibly, at the same time. He saw that, and realized his mistake.

"Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Shadowflame, but you can call me Shadow, if you like. I'm a professor at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."

I didn't know what that was, but Noir certainly did. He relaxed visibly when he heard that, and took a look at his flank.

"I guess you are telling the truth, after all," he said. I knew that was the same as an apology.

He smiled at us. "Good that you think so of me."

He then looked at me, curious. "Can I ask you something?"

I nodded.

"Have you dyed your mane, or your tail, or both?"

That question took me off guard. I couldn't help but laugh a bit. Even Noir smiled; no doubt he had asked the same question to himself.

"No! I haven't. They are my natural colors."

He laughed too, now. "How interesting!"

Now I felt it was my turn to question him.

"But, if you work for Celestia's school, why aren't you there?"

"Well, that is because I am more like a field teacher; I travel a lot, write some spells and then return to teach them there, at school. Sometimes, I even bring a student with me on my travels! But, as you can see, today is not the case," he answered.

Noir was listening quietly, up until now.

"Where do you live? Do you have any family somewhere?"

"Well… I do have some family in Canterlot, I guess, but I haven't seen them in quite a while."

Shadow looked at him. "I think I haven't caught your names yet."

"My name is Wing Noir," he said. "And this is Civviq Writer."

He nodded. I was a bit offended; I could tell him my name myself just as good.

"Hey, can you teach me some magic?" I asked. "I can do some levitation, but I still can't do it really good."

He nodded again. "I will do that! Besides, I'm hungry. Why don't we stop for lunch? I have enough food for all of us!"

And so, we stopped for food and practiced a bit of magic, teaching me how to levitate two things at once, and improved my writing.

"Of course," Shadow said, "You must keep practicing, if you want to improve."

I agree with this. I will practice as much as I can.

Now, I will lay my pen down and continue travelling to Vanhoover.

Dear reader,

Now, I'm writing while I'm walking! It Is so amazing! I can just totally walk and talk and write at the same time! Yes! All thanks to Shadowflame.

Speaking of which, he is talking to Wing Noir right now. I can't hear what they're saying right now, because I fell too far behind, but I guess it isn't for my ears – or pen, for that matter. I am surprised that they haven't asked for my notebook yet, but they're probably really curious for what exactly is in there.

But I won't tell them. No, I won't show them yet what I wrote.

Now I can write while I walk, I can describe my surroundings better. Right now, for example, we are walking on a sandy road, as always.

At both sides of the road, there was first a verge made of grass, and then a ditch. At my left, there was a small patch of forest. The trees were close to each other, and I could hear plenty of birds tweeting and twinkering and singing for the afternoon sun. On my other side there was a big field full of crop: mainly golden rye, and occasionally the green sprouts of carrots or potatoes and wide, green fields of grass with cows grazing on them.

It had gotten colder over time. You can see that in the surroundings: the forests are more pine than loaf trees, and there were less crops and more fields with cows and there is just more forest.

We are nearing Vanhoover quickly, that's for sure. The sun is already beginning to set. We are climbing up a hill now. There! There's Vanhoover! We stay on the top to admire the view.

Shadow calls. "So, kids, have you already thought about where you're going to stay for the night?" he says. We shake our heads. We haven't thought about that since we left the old, abandoned wagon. Shadowflame uneasily shifts his weight from two legs to another.

"I know we haven't had a good start, but do you trust me enough when I say I know a good inn in town, where we each can have separate rooms for not so much bits and still be clean enough to sleep in?"

Me and Noir look at each other, doubting.

"But we don't have any bits." Noir said.

"I'll pay."

We look at each other again. "Well…" I say.

"I have some family in Vanhoover. We can sleep there."

Shadow nods. "And what if they're not home, or they don't want you to stay with them, or you don't know where they are?"

It's clear, Noir doesn't know what to say, so I decide to help him a bit.

"Why don't we do it like this: you go ahead to the inn and show us where it is. Then, we go find Noir's family and ask them if we can stay with him, and if we can't find them or if we can't stay, we'll sleep at the inn."

Noir nods. Oh?

"I agree. If we aren't back in an hour since we parted, you can say we're safely at the home of my family."

But Shadowflame still seems a bit unsure.

"Well, if you say so… But do have in mind, I probably know the city better then you do, so please, let me come with you, because I really don't feel comfortable leaving you alone."

Noir lowered his head and nodded. "You've got a point there," he said.

And so we went to Vanhoover.

A few credits:

MLP belongs to Hasbro & co

Civviq belongs to me!

Wing Noir belongs to TH3 BL1ND PR0PH3T

Shadowflame belongs to Shadowflame on

Thank you all so much! If your OC isn't in here yet, have patience. They will come when the story calls for it.