*Author's note*
"If she knows about the show, how does she not know who Luna is? These inconsistencies are driving me nuts!"
I just wish to clarify this concern, Storm knows about the show from hearing various things on the internet. Basically a few memes and merchandise is where she's heard the names. Despite knowing the names of these three ponies, she is not educated on the show and its world. I hope that clarifies things. :)
Anyways, enjoy this next chapter!
Storm POV
My eyes opened to the crystal ceiling above my head. The sun's light shone through the large windows. It was a still quiet morning as the sun was still rising.
"I guess it really wasn't a dream..." I yawned as I forced myself out of bed.
As I climbed out of bed, I turned my attention to the wings on my back that now stood upright. So far their movement has been based on instinct it seems. Having wings could be pretty cool, if only I knew how to use them. They seem attached to my shoulder blades, so maybe if I could just try to manipulate the muscle...
With some experimentation, the wings started to flap slowly.
"Now let's try these things out..."
I tried to flap my wings harder, letting them cup the air. With a few flaps, I was starting to hover in the air!
A large smile grew on my face and I laughed with joy as I twirled in the air. In all this craziness, I never thought I'd ever be able to fly.
It seemed leaning in a certain direction would make me go there. If I leaned forward, I would go forward. If I leaned backward, which kind of made me scared that I would fall, made me go backwards. Of course, flying at my current skill might give away the fact I wasn't a pegasus to begin with. I was completely shaky as I tried to fly through the air.
I kept flying higher until I touched the ceiling of the smile on my face quickly faded though as I was faced with a problem.
"Uh...how do I get down?"
I tried slowing the flapping, but the sudden aid of the air dropped me towards the ground, crashing me into the bed below.
"Argh...I guess I'll have to work on that..." I groaned.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. The handle glowed with a magenta aura this time as the door swung open. The pony behind the door was none other than Twilight.
"Oh, good to see you're up! How did you sleep last night?"
In a startle, I quickly sat up to face Twilight.
"Oh hey, Twilight. I slept okay. This bed is pretty comfortable." I forced a smile.
"I'm glad to hear that," Twilight walked closer, "So did you have any plans for today? It is your first time in Ponyville afteralll."
"Well, not exactly..." I shrugged nervously.
"I was wondering if you would like a tour of Ponyville. I would be more than happy to show you around."
"Really? That would be great!" I smiled as I hopped off the bed.
"Great! I can't wait for you to meet some of my friends and see all the awesome places."
I quickly put on my backpack and skateboard. Even if they might be safe in the castle, I wanted to stick to what was most familiar to me.
"It should be safe out there right? Nothing will attack me?"
Twilight raised an eyebrow.
"No...why would something attack you?"
"Well, it's just that when I fell yesterday I got attacked by a wooden wolf, luckily I escaped."
Her eyes widened as her wings suddenly stood.
"You escaped from a timberwolf?! That explains why you've been kind of jumpy since you arrived. Well I can assure you that nothing will attack you in the center of town.
I simply shrugged before pushing away the blue bangs that hung down in front of my face.
"Well, come on! I'm taking you to the bakery first. They make the best cakes!"
Twilight led me out of the castle and through town. The first stop was in the bakery in the middle of town.
The building reminded me of a gingerbread house, at least the roof looked like it actually was made of gingerbread. The outline of the roof was white, like frosting, same for the outline of a tower in the middle of the roof that looked like a giant cupcake with pink frosting, with another smaller cupcake on top of it. The weather vane was a pony holding a giant candy cane, with the other corner of the roof acting as the home to a bird nest. Up the two purple steps there was a giant pink door that Twilight approached.
"Storm, this is Sugarcube Corner. One of my best friends works in here."
She used her magic to open the door. As we walked in, there was a larger blue mare with a curled pink mane and tail that had three pink cupcakes for her cutie mark. She was serving an order to another pony at the counter. The gray pegasus with a blonde mane took her order and left. I couldn't help but look again as the mare's eyes were crossed.
"Why hello, Twilight! I haven't seen you here in quite a while!" The blue earth pony excitedly greeted.
"Hi Mrs. Cake. Is Pinkie Pie here?"
The blue mare continued to work, carefully placing some cupcakes into a box behind the counter.
"Oh, you just missed her. She went over to pick up some things from the market. I'd be happy to let her know you stopped by though!"
Mrs. Cake then leaned to look past Twilight at me.
"Who is this with you?" She smiled friendly.
Twilight facepalmed with a smile...or should I say facehoof?
"Oh, where are my manners. Mrs. Cake, this is Shred Storm. Storm, this is Mrs. Cake. She and her husband are the owners of this shop."
"Why it's a pleasure to meet you, Storm!" Mrs. Cake smiled.
"It's nice to meet you too!" I replied politely.
"I don't believe I've seen you in town before. Are you new?"
I nodded my head with a smile.
"Actually yes. I just arrived late last night."
"Well, I have a feeling it won't be too long before you meet Pinkie Pie." She chuckled before packing another box of sweets.
I tilted my head in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, let's just say she has a way of getting to know everypony in town. You'll find out soon enough."
I had no idea what that could mean, so I simply shrugged off the thought.
"Before we go, would you like a cupcake, Storm? My treat!"
"R-Really? I'd love one! Er, thanks." I smiled.
"Two cupcakes coming right up." Mrs. Cake grabbed two cupcakes from behind the counter.
She placed the cupcakes in a bag and placed in on the counter.
"That will be two bits."
To my surprise, Twilight seemed to reach in some kind of pocket before levitating two gold bits from seemingly nowhere!
"Does...Does she have some kind of pocket on her? Or did she magically make that appear? If the first option, do I have pockets? And is that this world's money? I don't think I have anything like that with me! I might have to get a job here if I'm going to support myself for however long I'm in this world."
"Thanks Mrs. Cake. Please say hi to Pinkie Pie for us!"
"I sure will. You two take care!"
Twilight levitated the bag of cupcakes and we were on our way.
Twilight levitated the two cupcakes from the bag.
"Which one do you prefer, Storm? Chocolate or white? I enjoy both, so take your pick."
"Hmm...I prefer white cake honestly."
Twilight smiled as she floated the cupcake over to me. I tried to balance the cupcake on my right hoof. Meanwhile, Twilight smiled as she ate the entire chocolate cupcake in one bite!
I shrugged and tried to bite my entire cupcake as well. I can't tell if the cupcake is small, or my mouth got bigger in my transformation, but I was able to eat the whole thing with no problem.
"So-" Twilight finished eating her cupcake, "Since we're pretty close, my friend Rarity's boutique is nearby. We'll just head on ov-"
Twilight was suddenly interrupted by a pink flash that raced by us.
My eyes widened as I looked behind me, with the pink flash already gone.
"What the heck was that?!" I gasped.
"Oh, you'll see. It happens pretty frequently here." Twilight chuckled.
We soon approached the boutique. It was a cute little carousel design that was painted in pinks and purples. On the top carousel design there were some wooden purple ponies attached to the poles. The giant sign on front of the door had a golden pony with a pink outfit on.
Twilight opened the purple door and walked right in.
"Now, Rainbow Dash, for the love of Celestia would you please sit still?!" A refined feminine voice yelled.
"This is so boring. I don't know how in the world I let you talk me into this..." Another woman spoke, although this time her voice was slightly raspy.
Both of us walked in to find a white unicorn with a stylized curly purple mane and tail and a cyan pegasus with a messy rainbow tail and mane. The unicorn was using the pegasus as a model for a new dress, a purple one with light yellow highlights. The pegasus did not seem happy, however as she was forced to sit still on the round platform while the unicorn used her magic to hold some tools to make adjustments.
"Oh, did I come at a bad time?" Twilight raised an eyebrow.
The unicorn paused and acted surprised to see us.
"Twilight! I'm sorry, I didn't even hear you come in!" She smiled apologetically.
The pegasus's wings stood up when she saw me.
"Hey, we have a new flyer in town?!" Her wings flapped excitedly as she started to hover in the air.
Rarity widened her eyes at the pegasus's excitement.
"Rainbow Dash, would you please land yourself before something happens to that dress!"
Twilight simply chuckled at their antic.
"Storm, these are two of my best friends, Rarity and Rainbow Dash. Rarity, Dash, this is Shred Storm."
Rarity and Rainbow Dash, two of the six. I could recognize Rainbow Dash anywhere with how much she's talked about online. Rarity on the other hand, I have only seen maybe a clip or two of her and that she loves fasion. Despite knowing of them, I really don't know much beyond that the characters exist. Still, my limited knowledge on this show is better than nothing.
Rarity set down her tools down on a nearby table as she smiled.
"Why it's a pleasure to meet you, Shred Storm! Did you just arrive in Ponyville?"
"Actually, I prefer to be called 'Storm', and to answer your question, I just arrived late last night."
Rainbow Dash landed on the platform, careful not to step on the dress.
"So are you a good flyer at all? You look pretty fast!" Rainbow Dash asked quickly with excitement.
"Well, I'm pretty decent at flying. I usually prefer to ride on my skateboard though."
"Awesome! I know a little filly that likes to ride around on a scooter to get around town. She's pretty speedy too, almost as fast as me." Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on her chest as she referred to herself pridefully.
Rarity simply rolled her eyes with a smile. Something tells me she's used to the pegasus talking about speed.
Twilight put a hoof to her mouth as she tried to hide a chuckle.
"Anyway...I'm taking Storm for a tour around Ponyville. Would you two like to join us?"
Without question, Rainbow Dash flew into the air and twirled out of the dress.
"Of course I want to come!"
Rarity hastily caught the dress with her magic, before placing it down on the platform with a sigh.
"Well, I suppose this dress will have to wait until later. I shall come too." She turned to us with a smile.
Twilight smiled as she turned to the door.
"Great! The more the merrier!"
The four of us began to head out towards the market place. This seemed to be the busiest part of town, as there were many ponies buying and selling products.
Rainbow Dash was flying just a head of us, scanning the scene.
I looked over at Twilight and Rarity and noticed that they were looking around too, as if they were looking for a familiar face.
"Well this seems to be life now. Never did I ever imagine that I would be walking around in a world of pastel ponies. That's it, I've cracked. Maybe Jake was right about making up the who-"
My thoughts were interrupted as I could have sworn I saw an indigo wisp float by out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head and saw the wisp again, it was like a small purple glow of magic, only it wasn't levitation.
"I...I'll catch up with you guys. I want to check something out."
"Alright. We'll be just around the marketplace." Twilight replied with a smile before continuing her search.
I turned left and followed the wisp. It was like it was trying to lead me somewhere, as I couldn't quite catch up with it just yet.
The wisp floated over to behind one of the stands, where it seems there was no one back there. It was then that the indigo wisp flashed and disappeared.
"H-Hello?"
My ears perked up to try and hear anyone, but there was no voice.
I was about to shrug and walk away, when suddenly I heard a clank come from one of the stands. Another glance over revealed what seemed like a falcon that crawled out from the curtains of the stand. In his beak it seemed like he held a prize, it looked like an emerald trinket in the shape of an egg that was attached to a gold chain.
"Hey, get back here you varmint! You're stealing a very valuable item there!"
The shop owner ran out after the falcon with his hoof in the air and his temper boiling mad.
He seemed to be an older-looking pony, more adult than the others I've met. He didn't have wings or a horn, so that meant he was just an earth pony. His fur was periwinkle while his mane and tail were white and a bit messy in style, though it was hard to see most of it as it was shaded by a brown fedora of sorts. His cutie mark was of a compass inside a magnifying glass.
Quickly he looked around for help. As soon as he spotted me he pointed a hoof at me.
"You there, pegasus! You look like a fast flyer. I know this is sudden but can you please help me get that emerald back?" He pleaded with urgency and worry.
"U-Uh, sure!" I nodded hesitantly before opening my wings to fly again.
As I flew up into the sky, I realized that the weight of my backpack might prove this to be an even bigger challenge. Great, I'm a newbie flyer and with added weight. What on earth did I even have in this backpack?
I flapped my wings harder, trying desperately to keep up with the falcon.
The bird looked back and saw my struggle. I shook my head in confusion but I could have sworn I saw it smirk at my misfortune. With a screech, it began to fly faster, beginning to swoop into the Ponyville streets.
"Oh come on!" I shouted at the bird as I tried to keep up while keeping my eyes on him.
I didn't dare try to descend too fast, for fear of a crash landing like earlier. Scanning the streets, I saw a few ponies gasped as the falcon passed by. He was almost zig-zagging as he dodged ponies.
Trying to get closer to the falcon, I tried to fly a bit lower while almost losing my balance.
The falcon sneered as he kept flying.
The weight of my backpack definitely did not help my flying at all, as weak as I was already. It kept bouncing as my wings were flapping. Suddenly, as I was too focused on the bird, I didn't notice as my skateboard began to shake loose of the backpack's straps. Without warning, the board began to fall towards the ground.
"Oh no! Not my skateboard!"
I began to swoop down towards the skateboard. As I finally caught it in my hooves, everything happened so fast as I was quickly approaching the ground.
"Ah!" I screamed, hastily flipping upright and trying to fly back into the air.
I closed my eyes and braced for impact.
It felt like it all happened at once. In my panic, I dropped the board on the ground. With the momentum of my fall, my back hooves landed on the skateboard and I found myself standing on the board like a human. My wings continued to flap fast, allowing my board to pick up speed.
I opened my eyes again as I realized what had just happened. It seemed out of sheer luck that I was unharmed.
"Ha...hahaha!" Laughed escaped my mouth as I discovered this new ability.
With determination, I began to flap my wings harder to pick up speed.
The falcon looked back to see the result of my swoop. He screeched with surprise at my recovery.
Getting closer and closer to the falcon, the bird screeched again in panic. To my luck, he even dropped the emerald trinket out of his mouth.
Seeing this, I quickly turned my board so it would dig into the dirt. I ended up stopping just a bit past the trinket.
"Hah...Hah...whew..." I tried to catch my breathe before reaching down to pick up the trinket to return to the stallion.
I looked down at my skateboard with a smirk. It seems that I would be able to use it here after all.
I rode through Ponyville, admittedly feeling a bit proud of my new trick.
Soon enough I reached the stallion's market stand.
"Hello? Sir?"
The earth pony wasted no time getting to the back of the stand. He saw the emerald trinket in my mouth as I walked over to him.
"You got it! Oh thank Celestia!"
He took the trinket with such excitement, as if he escaped the jaws of death itself.
"Heh, it was no trouble at all. Glad I was able to help you."
"Help?! You didn't just help me, young mare, you just rescued a priceless jewel that I excavated from the hidden caverns of Ghastly Gorge! It took a lot of hard work to find this trinket."
He held up the egg-shaped jewelry. On second glace, the thing did look pretty old.
"Wow...so I take it you're a treasure hunter?"
"You'd better believe it. I travel all across Equestria to find jewels and treasures."
The earth pony walked behind the curtains of the shop to put the amulet away. He then walked back out with a huge smile on his face.
"Say, I don't believe I've quite gotten your name."
"Oh, I'm Shred Storm! But my friends call me Storm." I smiled back at him.
"A pleasure, Miss Storm. Ponies around here call me Fort Miner."
To my surprise, Fort then reached a hoof into a slit just above his cutie mark. It seems that ponies have pockets after all.
"It's not much for what it's worth, but I would like to compensate for your time."
I watched as he pulled out a small pouch of what looked like bits.
"W-Wait, you're giving this to me?!" My jaw hung open.
"Yes, you've more than earned it. There's about fifteen gold bits in there."
I stared at the pouch as it was placed into my hoof.
"This is real money in this world, and it's all mine!"
Carefully I put the pouch in to my newly discovered pocket that I had just above my cutie mark as well.
"Thank you again, Shred Storm. If you ever need my assistance, please don't hesitate to find me." He tipped his hat.
"Thank you!"
With that, he turned back in his stand and went back to business.
I reattached my skateboard to my backpack and threw the backpack on once more. It had been a while since I was with my new friends. It was about time I caught up with them.
As I began to head towards the busy side of the market place once again, the new experience kept replaying in my head. My flying needed a lot of work, but as for skateboarding, I was really excited to continue doing that in this new pony way.
I froze though as I looked around once again. There was still no sign of that purple wisp, nor a hint as to where it went. No doubt that it was there, and no doubt that it couldn't happen again.
For now I simply shrugged it off as I went to find my new friends.
The indigo shade, it almost reminded me of the night sky back home...