canterlot Walking on the Moon, Prancing on the Wind (ATTN: Tacobob)

[PyroBlaze]

"Oh yes, thanks mom. Today is too great to waste indoors!" A unicorn filly cried, though she was quite obviously walking alone. That is, alone aside from the copy of her walking right next to her. "Not like I have things to study for or anything."

 

the grumbling filly was wearing her white hoodie with the hood up, shaking her head a bit as she walked. 

 

"Oh, but it is a lovely day outside, can you really blame her for wanting you to experience it?" The copy said, smiling over at the original. She glared back for a moment before her horn lit and she dispelled the illusion with a little popping noise. 

 

"Yes, yes I can." She finished, looking around. Despite her grumbling, she couldn't exactly dispute that it was nice outside today. Who knows, maybe this would become more than a simple walk through the city. 

[tacobob]

 

“Seriously! It was a real, honest to goodness dragon!”

 

Two little Pegasus pony kids slowly made their way down a small neighborhood street in Canterlot. Both were in the middle of a very spirited conversation. One was a little blue filly and the other was a brown colt. Both were wearing festive 'Whinny World' windbreakers.

 

 

"She looked like a big snake, but she had legs and purple hair and was wearing a big wizard's hat!", the filly exclaimed, "She was able to stuff me into her food bag and would have taken me to her lair, but I was too fast for her!"

 

 

The colt was obviously not buying this as he shook his head, "Ah come on Wind! She was probably trying to scare you...cause you know. Nightmare Night.", he quickly got ahead of the filly and turned to face her as they continued to walk, "I doubt Filthy Rich would let a real ol' pony-munchin', bone-crunchin', filly-lunchin' dragon into his house! Either your dad would see her, or even Princess Twilight Sparkle would detect an evil presence in Ponyville and would have stopped her before she got too far."

 

"Nuh-huh.", retorted the 'master debater'. "We've had all kinds of monsters in Ponyville and they were able to get in just fine, from those nasty changelings to a big old centaur. And if they could do it, so could a pony eating dragon!", the filly cleared her throat, "Anyways, she got away before Bebop and I could give her a....Fast Track! Watch out behind you!", she yelped.

 

"Watch out for...ooop!" This was the day, Fast Track and Wind Walker met Moonprancer, as the brown colt walked right into the unicorn filly...

 

[PyroBlaze]

Moonprancer hadn't really noticed the approach of the other kids, at least not until one of them bumped into her and nearly caused the two to fall over in a tangle of limbs. She had managed to catch herself though, extracting herself out from under the colt with a grunt before turning to look at the two pegusi. She really wasn't sure what to say, dusting off her hoodie and fixing the placement of her glasses.

 

"What? Can't you watch where you're going?" She said, a bit peeved by what had happened. And she had just started to get over her mom's directive too! "Who are you two anyways? I'm Moonprancer." She added, looking over the two.

[tacobob]

 

The two little ponies let out an less than heroic  as they collided with the unicorn filly.

 

The brown colt yelped as the little unicorn squirmed her way out of the pile. “Oh, sorry!”, he quickly got up and tried his best to help the nameless girl up. “Wow, now I know how the 707  felt when it crashed into the 1404 during the ‘Great Wreck’ of aught nine!”, this caused the filly to roll up her eyes. The pony gave off a sheepish grin as he spoke,“Sorry about that..I sometimes get into conversations with my friends and the whole world sort of poofs away. You’re Moonprancer? That’s an interesting na..”

 

He was quickly cut off by the filly.

 

“Hey, that’s like Moondancer, Pocket’s girlfriend.”, the filly blurted out.

 

Now it was time for the colt to roll his eyes up, “Geez, you sure know a lot about your sister’s friend’s brother’s love-life. That’s a bit odd doncha think?”

 

The filly was not amused, “Ah come on! You’ve hung around with him before! He can’t stop talking about that girl!”, she turned her attention to the unicorn, “He just gets all screwy in the eyes when someone mentions her name and then the pink and red hearts just start popping out from his horn. It’s rather disturbing and I saw a guy get a bloody snout when he got bonked with one of the bigger ones.”

 

The colt groaned once more before his attention was fully on Moonprancer. “Sorry. My friend is a bit silly today. I’m Fast Track, and the blue kid is Wind Walker. Are you okay?”, he gave her a quick lookover to make sure he didn’t ruffle the poor kid.

 

 

[PyroBlaze]

The 707? What was he talking about? Ugh, whatever it was didn't matter. The filly was in the middle of stretching when the blue filly said something that made her pause, blinking in confusion. They knew Moony? Had she ever talked about them? They didn't look like anypony she remembered those two describing...

 

By the time she refocused on the conversation, having given up on trying to remember them, the colt was giving names. Wind Walker and Fast Track... nope, still not ringing any bells. 

 

"You know my sister?" She asked, looking at Wind and accidentally ignoring Fast Track's question. To be fair though, she seemed perfectly fine after that, so the answer was somewhat obvious.

 

"And you talk to Pocket. Hmm..." She added, rubbing her chin with her hoof a little bit. Maybe they could give her something about Moony that she didn't know! And then she'd have one more thing to tease her sister about. Yes, maybe this trip was a good idea after all. 

 

"Hey, you guys got any tidbits about them?" She asked, looking over at them. She really never was that subtle, as evidenced by her question. 

[tacobob]

 

The pair both shook their heads. “Nope.” “Nah.”, they replied simultaneously with each other.

 

“I just know what type of pony she is because of Pocket Change.”, the filly added, “Before my parents and I moved from here to Ponyville, we had a great big party and he was there along with his sister Docket. She’s really good friends with my big sister. That’s how we know him.”

 

The colt spoke up, “He kept chattering about your big sis while he was there. Got rather old quickly. Said she was the prettiest mare that ever lived.”

 

“And she was very clever. Like four ponies worth of clever packed in just one pony.”, The filly continued, “That’s a lot of clever.”

 

Fast Track, like his name, was fast on the draw, “Also said she was the bestest teacher ever. Even helped him better his magic skills and even push him towards learning how to app..er....app....teleport.”

 

“He was also getting dangerously close to heart eyes.”, Wind Walker was amused by this, “When an unicorn is in love, his or hers pupils may look like little red hearts. Weird.”

 

Fast Track was obviously starting to get a little tired talking about Moondancer, "So, what about you? If you've got a quarter of your sister's smarts, you must be pretty smart and go to that special magic school that Princess Celestia set up.."

[PyroBlaze]

Well, that was unfortunate. Oh well, she supposed it was a bit much for a couple fillies she'd never heard of to have anything from Pocket she hadn't heard already. She was happy those two liked each other and all, but he really could go overboard sometimes. 

 

"Well, the teleporting part is true at least, that other stuff is just biased opinions." Moonprancer said, shrugging slightly. She blinked a little bit as the question turned towards her. 

 

"I'm plenty smart, thank you very much." She scoffed, rolling her eyes a bit before continuing. "I definitely have more ambition than her if her study habits are any indication. And of course I go to Princess Celestia's school."

 

"Wait, what are you doing here if you live in Ponyville?" She asked after a moment, looking at Wind. 

[tacobob]

 

“Well, he is in love with her.”, the little filly added, “I’ve been told when you you’re in love, your brain turns to mush and you start saying words like ‘snuggle-wuggle’ and ‘schnoodle-dumplin’.”, she grinned at her colt-companion who took a moment before he realized those last words were aimed at him.

 

“Hey!”, Fast Track yelped, “I only said those once and I was being...funny.." It was very obvious that the little brown pony was not even buying his own words.

 

Wind Walker could not help but return a devilish grin back at her friend, "Ol' Fastie fell head over hooves for this cute Prench gal he got to play guide with not that long ago and he was so ''ooh la la' over her after that. As for what I'm doing here.", the blue filly responded, "I was born in Canterlot and lived here for most of my life, until I moved to Ponyville with my parents. So when I can, I pop over here and hang around with my old friends like Fast Track here. We were going to get another friend of ours, a filly named Cinnamon Tart, but she's currently super-duper grounded. So it's just us two for now. You can number three if you want, unless you have to be somewhere else."

[PyroBlaze]

Moonprancer gave a snort as it was revealed that Fast Track had been in that kind of love once. She smiled at the two, blinking a bit as Wind asked if she wanted to hang out with them. 

 

"Well, I don't really have anywhere to be, Mom just kicked me out for a couple hours." She responded, shrugging before she continued speaking. "What did you have in mind?"

[tacobob]

 

The colt was the first one to respond, “The Canterlot Train Mus...erm..Why are you looking at me like that?”, he noticed Wind Walker was giving him a dirty look. “I like trains. And museums are cool, especially if they’re about trains.”, Fast Track plainly stated.

 

“Ewe.”, the filly groaned, “None of those words are correct, but I’ll be fair.”, she turned her attention to Moonprancer, “Where would you like to go?" She looked back at her old friend who was 'casually' pointing out the train cutie mark that rested on his flank, "Anywhere but that please."

[PyroBlaze]

His first choice was a train museum? Well, she appreciated his desire to learn about something, but trains were not something she cared about. The unicorn looked at Fast for a few moments before shaking her head. 

 

"We could go to the park. Or a malt shop or something." Moonprancer offered. "I'm all for learning, Fast Track, but not so much for trains."

[tacobob]

 

The little colt scrunched up his face as his beloved train museum was rejected! “Nuts, I asked Wiseacre and Sweet Cents the other day and they said no, so did Double Time.”, Fast Track let out an sad little whimper.

 

Wind Walker's heart sunk a little further, and being the type of pony who did not like to see a friend sad, turned to the colt, “Oh for pony’s sake. How about this?”, it took a moment to leave her lips, “I promise. Tomorrow we will go." They did have a really cool train ride set up, which went through simulated Equestrian cities, but there was bound to be at least one lecture they'll have to sit though, and it was bound to be one from  Sir Nigel Gearsely. Guy invited a train that beat the speed record for steam locomotives and he made sure everypony knew that. The old gas-bag must be older than Princess Celestia. And how he would drone on and on.

 

The colt clapped his front hooves together, "Hot dog! I heard Sir Nigel is doing a special anniversary lecture! Just wish it was longer than the meager two hours they have scheduled.", he pouted.

 

The filly turned her attention back to the unicorn with a groan, "Sorry about that..And yeah...We can hit the old malt shop..And also check out some of the decorations ponies have already started to put up."

 

The now very happy Fast Track followed the two girls, "I really like the Hearths Warming Eve drinks they make there during this time 'o' year. Gingerbread Milkshakes. Candycane Milkshakes. What do you think you'll get?", he asked Moonprancer.

[PyroBlaze]

Moonprancer smiled to herself, shaking her head a bit as Fast complained about a two-hour lecture being too short. He certainly did like his trains. Though she supposed she really couldn't blame him, she was the same way with magic and such. 

 

"Well, I was thinking of getting into the spirit of things... I'll probably get eggnog flavor." She said, giving a nod as she walked along with them. She was actually kinda happy her mom forced her to go outside now, these two were fun. 

[tacobob]

 

The threesome found themselves at a cute little malt shop staring up at the menu.

 

“Fig and Port?”, the filly read the first selection of the shop’s holiday selection, “What does that have to do with Hearth’s Warming Eve?”

 

“You know from the song.”, the little colt cleared his throat and sung the rest, “Now bring us some figgy pudding. And a cup of good cheer. We won't go until we get some. Yadda Yadda Yadda.". Thankfully he stopped singing as quickly as he started, "And the port is wine, which, I guess would make a good cup of 'cheer'. Didn't think they'd put wine in a milkshake. Yuck.". He stuck his tongue out in disgust.

 

Wind Walker couldn't help but grin, "Considering what figs do to you, I'm sure you'd have to 'go' after having some of that.", she read a few more choices, most were safe. Egg Nog. White Chocolate. Peppermint Bark.  The blue Pegasus pony elected to get what she considered the 'best of both worlds' and ordered an Peppermint Eggnog Shake.

 

The colt went with an 'Gingerbread Shake' as he eyes fell upon an rather festive gingerbread train set that the malt shop had on display.

 

Once Moonprancer had her order, the three found a seat and waited for their order.  "So.", Wind turned to the filly, "What do you and your family have planned for Hearth's Warming Eve? We're doing the full Ponyville experience. It's a bit different there.", she added, "I heard they have these massive parties there for Hearth's Warning Eve. It's like the whole village is your family."

 

"Well, duh.", the colt turned his attention away from the oven-baked trains, "They have massive parties for Oatmeal Muffin Day and Barbershop Music Appreciation Day. Blame Pinkie Pie for that."

[PyroBlaze]

Moonprancer stuck with what she said earlier, ordering an eggnog shake before finding a seat with the other two. She gave a small hum, trying to remember what her parents had been planning for the holiday. 

 

"We'll probably be staying around here for Hearth's Warming Eve, with Moony coming over to celebrate with us. Course that probably means Pocket will be there too, but that would also mean my brothers could bother him instead of me, so it's a good thing." She replied, shrugging slightly. "Maybe I should go to Ponyville to see what all the fuss is about... Then again, I've never been one for parties full of ponies I don't know."

[tacobob]

 

Wind Walker's ears perked up the moment she could hear the blenders start their magic. "Parties can go a few ways for me." Now it was her nostril's turn to get into the fun. She could smell the peppermint as it was mashed into a more easier to drink form. "They could have all my friends, and then my friend's friends and those friends of those friends. And if things go well, I'll make new friends. And if those friends live in different places, I'll have somepony to show me around when I visit. Which is cool. And then there's the family parties. Which can be good, since I have a few cousins my age. And usually they'll let me bring a friend or two. And not say, their weird uncle."

 

The little colt let out an "Hey!" at that comment. "Uncle Thunderbyrd is a really cool guy! He raises exotic birds. Wears sunglasses like all of the time." Fast Track glanced towards the counter to see how his drink was coming.

 

"Oye.", the filly's eyes rolled around, "Guy has a mustache so big you can't see his mouth and he hit on my sister. When she was dating Dunder. Good thing Big-D never found out or he would be like all.". She made what sounded like 'karate' sounds while making a few moves of her own. She stopped the moment a few patrons started to give her a 'look'. "Speaking of creepy uncles, that leads me to my third type of party. The worst kind. The 'all adult' party that I sometimes get dragged into. Lots of big hoofed grown-ups that apparently have never seen a kid before. And even with the officer parties, you'd think there would be a cool guy or two there. Like Soarin or Silver Lining or one of the cool Wonderbolts who are also officers. But nope. There's always Gutsy from public relationships with her mother problems or Sour Grapes that always has stomach issues. Why is he telling a kid about this?"

 

One thing Moonprancer said has slightly disturbed her. "Wait a sec.", she gasped, "Your brothers bother you?" Maybe it made sense. Just take the letter 'r' out of brother and you'd get bother. "My one brother Punk likes to tease me, but he gets as good as he gives out. But most of my siblings are pretty cool. When they stop at Ponyville, there's always something fun to be had. Are your brothers close to you in age? I could see them being more of a bother if they were."

[PyroBlaze]

Moonprancer smirked, holding back a bit of laughter at the description of Fast Track's uncle. She really didn't know many ponies that liked to constantly have sunglasses on, it was a rather short list even with this new addition. 

 

"I know another pony that wears sunglasses all the time. He's older than me, like almost done with school old, but he goes to the same school as me and he likes to hang around the Magic guild hall. Now that I think about it, maybe he's always wearing those things because he creates and controls fire." She commented, tapping her chin in thought as she listened to the rest of what Wind had to say. 

 

"Well of course they do, they like to tease me over how much time I spend studying and such, but I'll be the one laughing when they have to come crawling to their 'egghead' sisters for help with their magic." She said, letting out a small laugh. "They're pretty close to me in age, and they both want to be guards. Sometimes I think that's just the cover they use for their roughousing and other such shenanigans." The unicorn shrugged at that, adjusting her glasses with a bit of magic. 

[tacobob]

 

“Your school lets kids wear sunglasses?”, Fast Track was surprised to hear that. “Wind and I...I mean, just me..., go to a private school for children of the R.E.A and government workers. Wind’s whole family is in the R.E.A and my parents work for the transportation department,”, the colt was very sure he did not need to point out what part of that department his folks were from. “They make us wear uniforms, which is both bad and good, I guess.” he shrugged.

 

“Yep.”, the filly glanced back at the counter to see if their drinks were ready, “I was supposed to attend the school in Ponyville, but that place is tiny. Like teeny tiny.”, Wind groaned, “I think it holds like only nine students, so it’s home schooling for me.” She did not seem to be thrilled about this at all. “And older ponies can be funny sometimes. They might pretend to tease you, hoping you’d ‘show them’ and become better.  Also, I’m sure there’s no room for ‘roughhousing and other such shenanigans’ in the R.E.A. There's some really big and scary ponies that head the R.E.A. that would put an end to that so quickly....Even Captain Spitfire can get scary when mad."

 

A pimply-faced teenage pony slowly made his way towards the three pony's table. He pushed a small cart topped with a silver tray that contained three rather impressive looking shakes. "Your beverages are ready.", he squeaked.

[PyroBlaze]

"We don't have uniforms, per se, but there are things against the dress code. I had to do an entrance exam to get in, but it seems more relaxed than yours. I suppose that's to be expected from a school for REA kids though." She said, looking over at Fast Track. It was a bit surprising to hear that the entirety of Wind's family was part of the REA, she had to wonder about that. 

 

"So... all of them? You've just got a family of guards?" Moonprancer asked, tilting her head a bit. She paused then as their drinks arrived and she gave male a nod as she floated their drinks to their places.

 

"Are you going to join too?" She asked, looking at the filly as she took a drink of her shake, smiling at the taste. 

[tacobob]

 

“Oh yeah, they sure had an entrance exam.”, the colt grunted, “They had not one, but two.” Fast Track might have been experiencing flashbacks as he spoke. “I did really well on the written one, but the physical. ehhhh.”

 

“He got his flank kicked.”, the filly added, “You should see ol’ Fastie. Getting bumped around with the fake minotaur like a fuzzy pinball! Bing!  Bing!”

 

The brown Pegasus pony glowered back at his old friend, “I was going to say, I didn’t fail.”, he turned his attention back to Moonprancer, "In the school gym, they set up this maze and you need to make it out before the minotaur gets you. Mind, you, it's not the real thing. Unicorns project a rather impressive 'hard light' illusion that made it feel like there was a real one coming after you. And while I did get tagged a few times."

 

"Sixteen times.", the filly grinned ear to ear as she said this.

 

"A -few-", he shot back, "I managed to escape within the allocated time.", he at least had something to be proud about. "Not only did Wind get out of the maze in a near record time, she also beat up the minotaur and burned his house down."

 

"Professor Jarhead gave me a A++ for that one!", the filly beamed, "They used to let me run that course on Sundays to see if I could beat my own record!"

 

Once the drinks were placed on the table, both ponies snatched up their straws and went to work.

 

"As for the Royal Equestrian Army.", Wind Walker quickly licked off a remaining bit of shake from her lip, "There's a lot more there than just wearing armor and shouting 'who goes there?'. There's the usual boring stuff like accounting and pony services and junk, but also cool stuff like the Wonderbolts and even skilled unicorns who have to deal with dangerous, old magic that sometimes ends up in odd places. My mother writes and updates training manuals for the R.E.A and my Grandmother used to make uniforms. My sister trains young officers and my dad gets to yell at 'em. And yeah, I'm going to be on as well. I'll go to officer school and then hopefully join the Wonderbolts just like Great Aunt Stardust. My whole family has been in the R.E.A since for like forever." she returned to her straw for another long sip.

 

"So, how about you? What sort of magic do you plan on getting into? I've seen a few unicorns that just study everything and are usually decent, but then there are guys that stick to one major group of spells and can be pretty darn powerful at it.", Fast Track asked.

 

[PyroBlaze]

"You get chased by an illusory minotaur? Wow, that sounds a lot more exciting than my test. They just test how good you are at magic." Moonprancer said, blinking in surprise at what they were saying. She had never heard of a test like that before, but it made a certain amount of sense that it would be a thing. After all, in lieu of the real thing, an illusion would be the next best option. 

 

The filly fell silent after that, idly sipping her drink as she listened to them speak. She knew there was more to the guards than just the ones in the streets, there had to be considering not everything could be fixed that way. It was easy to forget the Wonderbolts were part of that though, considering all she heard about them were the shows they did. 

 

"Me?" Moonprancer asked, snapping back to the conversation as they asked what kind of magic she was studying. She blinked for a moment, struggling to form the words. She didn't really like to tell others of her own struggles with magic, but she didn't want to lie to these two either. She ended up burying her face in the table, after removing her glasses, groaning in frustration. 

 

"I... don't really have much power..." She mumbled into the table, moving so her chin rested on the table instead of her face. "I can't even cast most of the stuff I learn, not the way it's taught. That's why I spend most of my time finding other ways to cast them, ways I can use with my... limited stores." She added, replacing her glasses with a sigh. "If you want my specialty though, I'd say illusions."

[tacobob]

“Well, Dingus over here was chased.”, Wind Walker waved a hoof at her fuzzy brown friend, who could only squeak out an “Hey!”, between sips of his shake. “I was there to grab the bull by his horns.”, Wind proudly beamed, “Of course, the illusion was not as tough as a real minotaur, but he was still no pushover, and my dad taught me how to handle guys bigger then me, if I can’t fly away.”, The little blue filly took another sip from her straw, “As for the test, there were several ways to beat it, and it was designed for all types of students, and over the semester, they would let you run the course a few times, always asking to try other ways to beat it. Even Fast tried something nopony had ever done before. He actually asked the minotaur if he could lead him to the exit of the maze, and he did!”

 

Both ponies glanced over at Moonprancer as she started to reveal her choice in her specialty magic. There would have been dead silence, but Wind let out a grunt as a really bad case of brain-freeze was set upon the little filly. “Well.”, Wind Walker managed to chase away the pain, “That’s what being a kid is about. We start off so weak, but the more we do things, the better we get at it. You’re going to keep studying and practicing your magic, and keep getting better at it. I’ll keep on taking my flying lessons, and I’ll keep going faster and stronger...Fast Track..will..erm.”, she stuttered before giving up, “What is it that you do again?”, she glanced at the colt.

 

“Well, along with being an pretty good Scopa player, I'm learning the Pyrophone from Great Aunt Zdzinski..And there's train stuff. Yep.", he nodded, "There's always something new to learn, I mean just when you think you know everything there is to know about equalizing beams, somepony comes over and tells you there's much more! And really, illusions are really cool.", the pair noticed their glasses were nearly empty, "So Moon, after this, what do you want to do next?", the colt asked.

[PyroBlaze]

"Of course I'm going to keep practicing and learning, but that doesn't really change the power requirement or my reserves." Moonprancer replied, blinking a bit. "I study in my free time, I told you that right? I'll probably figure out ways to cast them eventually, but I can't yet."

 

She sighed slightly to herself before finishing off her shake and humming slightly. "I don't know... I could show you guys around the magic guild if you want."

[tacobob]

“There’s also the chance that you can rediscover old magic.”, the colt added, “A friend of mine...ours..”, he grinned back at Wind, “Has an uncle named Wise Auror, who brought back the ‘Waterball’. It’s like an ‘Fireball’, but water...Instead of fire. And you can do all kinds of things with it, like throw a waterball that’s either really hot or really cold, but not yet ice. He said they used to toss a waterball into something big, like an evil dragon. At first it would be normal water, but then it would get into the great creatures and then boil them alive from the inside. Ouch!”,he quickly laid a few bits out to cover the drinks, “I’ll pay...Dad gave me some extra coins for helping him with the ‘Crystal Kingdom’ part of our track.”

 

 

“Magic Guild?”, Wind managed to finish off her shake, “That could be interesting.” Or maybe she was forgetting something, “We could pop over there and see if they’re doing something magic-y.” There was a lone cherry in her glass. Could she get it? “Maybe your sister will be there, and you can also show us some of your spells.” Out of instinct, the filly quickly tried to vacuum up the remainder of her drink, but instead got a facefull of old timey milkshake mug. “Mer. Muh. Muh Muh Mer.”, she could only make out. Thankfully, her friend was able to yank the glass from her muzzle.

 

Both Pegasus ponies, slowly made their way from their respective chairs and were ready to move on!

 

[PyroBlaze]

Well, it seemed Fast didn't quite understand the whole 'not a lot of mana' thing, seeing as he just went off talking about the waterball spell. She had heard about it before, and it was on her list of spells to try. Though, seeing as it was mainly a combat spell, and she was more focused on utility, it was not very high on the list. 

 

She simply gave a slight hum in response to his words, levitating her cherry out of the glass and eating it. She chuckled as she watched Wind try to get her own cherry, climbing out of her seat with them. 

 

"Well, it's called the Magic Guild for a reason, I'm sure someone will be there to practice magic." Moonprancer said as she looked around briefly to get her bearings. "Sure, I guess I could show you some of my magic." She added, finding her way and leading the two pegusi towards the guild hall.